4: 






^' " t«?fv^^ 



THE TRIBUNfe TRACTS.-No^. 



SOUTHERN LOYALISTS' CONVENTION. 



CALL FOR A CONVENTION OF SOUTHERN UNIONISTS, TO 
MEET AT INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA,' ON 
MONDAY, THE THIRD DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1866. ' 



>'f the Loyal Unionists of the South : 

The great issue is upon us ! The majority in 
V •Dgress, and its supporters, firmly declare that 
" *he riffhts of the ci/iseti evmnerated in the Con. 
yitxttion, and established by the supreme law, v -ist 
'".■ maintained inviolate." 

Rebels and rebel sympathizers assert that 
■u'le rights of the citizen miutt be left to the 
States alone, and under such regulations as the 
rspective States choose voluntarily to prescribe." 

We have seen this doctrine of State sove- 
reignty carried out in its practical results. <intil 
.i!i authority in Congress was denied, the Union 
toiiporarily destroyed, the constitutional rights 
>,'i the citizen of tlie South nearly annihilated, 
. I I the land desolated by civil war. 

7he time has come when the restructure of 
■■-I'lthern State governments must be laid on 
■. . stitutional principles, or the despotism, grown 
.(■under an atrocious leadership, be permitted 
I' remain. We know of no other plan than that 
'.".Tigress, under its constitutional powers, shall 
fi- w exercise its authority to establi.sh the prin- 
cij'le whereby i)rotection is made co-extensive 
w'nh citizenship. 

sV'e maintain that no State, either by its or- 
giuic law or legislation, can make transgression 
on the rights of the citizen legitimate. We de- 
ri.aad and ask you to concur in detnanding pro- 
tection to every citizen of the great Republic 
on the basis of equality before the law ; and 
fiii-ther, that no State government t,hould lie re- 
cognized as legitimate under the Constitution in 
b.. far as it does not by its organic law make 
imjiartial protection full and complete. 

"nder the doctrine of " State sovereignty," 
with rebels in the foreground, controllin" Soii'tli- 
ern Legislatures, and embittered l)y disappoint- 
meut in their schemes to destnjy th(! (nion 
there will be no safety for the loyal element of 
the South. Our reliance for protection is now 
on Congress, and the great Union party that haa 



stood, and is standing, by the nationality, by 
the constitutional rights of the citizen, and by 
the beneficent principles of free government. 

For the purpose of bringing the loyal Union- 
ists of the South into conjunctive action with 
the true friends of republican government in 
the North, we invite yon to send delegates in 
goodly numbers from all the Southern States, 
including Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, 
Maryland, and Delaware, to meet at Independence 
Hall, in the city of Philadelphia, on the first 
Monday of September next. It is proposed that 
we should meet at that time to recommend 
measures for the establishment of such govern- 
ment in the South as accords with and protects 
the rights of citizens. We trust this call will 
be responded to by numerous delegations of 
such as represent the true loyalty of the South. 
That kind of government which gives full pro- 
tection to all the rights of citizens, such as our 
fathers intended, we claim as our birthri"-ht. 
Either the lovers of constitutional liberty must 
rule the nation, or rebels and their sympathizers 
be permitted to misrule it. Shall loyalty or 
disloyalty have the keeping of the destinies of 
the nation ? Let tlie resjionses to this call whicli 
is now in circulation for signatures, and is beiu"- 
numerously signed, answer. Notice is given 
that gentlemen at a distance can have their 
names attached to it by sending a request by 
letter, directed to D. IL Uingham, Esq., of Wash- 
ington, D. C. => -1 • 

W. B. STOKES, Tennessee. 
JOS. S. FOWLER, Tennessee. 
JAMES GETl^YS, Tennessee. 
NAT. H. OWENS, Tennessee. 
A.J. II.VMILTON, Texas. 
GEO. W P.\SCIIAL. Texa.s. 
LORE.NZO SHERWOOD. Texas 
C. IJ SAHIN, Texas. 
(J. W. ASIJLiURN, Georgia. 
IIENliY G. COLE, Georgia. 



QX^i: 



qt 



J. W. McCLURG, Missouri. 

JOHN R. KELSO, Missouri. 

J. F. BENJAMIN, Missouri. 

GEO. W. ANDERSON. Missouri. 

JOHN B. TROTH, 'Fairfax Co., Va'. 

J. M. STEWART, Alexandria, Va. 

WM. N. BERKLEY, Alexandria, Va. 

ALLEN C. HARMON, Alexandria, Va. 

LEWIS McKENZIE, Viro-inia. 

J. W. HUNNICUTT, Virginia. 

JOHN C. UNDERWOOD, Virginia. 

BURNHAM WARD WELL, Virginia. 

ALEX. M. DAVIS, Virginia. 

MICHAEL HAIIN, Louisiana. 

A. P. DOSTIE, Louisiana. 

W. P. JUDD, Louisiana. 

J. HAWKINS, Louisiana. 

EUGENE STAES, Louisiana. 

BYRON LAFLIN, North Carolina. 

DANIEL R. GOODLOE, North Carolina. 

GEORGE REESE, Alabama. 

D. H. BINGHAM, Alabama. 

M. J. SAFFOLD, Alabama. 

J. H. LARCOMBE, Alabama. 

THOMAS W. CONWAY, Louisiana. 

JAMES GRAHAM, Louisiana. 

R, T. VAN HORN, Missouri. 

W. J. COWING, Virginia. 

JOHN MINOR BOTTS, Virginia. 

JOHN F. LEWIS, Virginia. 

FRANKLIN STEARNS, Virginia. 
• W. R. HILLYER, Florida. 

PHILLIP FAAZAR, Florida. 

JOHN B. BROWN, Virginia. 

J. W. BABE, Arkansas. 

T. McKINLEY, Tennessee. 

THOS. C. FLETCHER, Missouri. 

CHARLES E. MOSS, Missouri. 

A. D. CARMON, Missouri. 

J. E. BRYANT, Georgia. 

R. KING CUTLER, Louisiana. 

HENRY C. DIBBLE, Louisiana. 

GUY DUPLANTIER, Louisiana. 

A. P. FIELD, Louisiana. 

RUFUS WAPLES, Louisiana. 

JUDGE E. HEISTAND, Louisiana. 

WESTON FLINT, Missouri. 

R. 0. SIDNEY, Mississippi. 
Washington, July 4, 1866. 



CIRCULAR LETTER. 
, Washington, D. C, 10th of July, 1866. 

Eir '. — The undersigned have been appointed, 
by the signers of the accompanying call, a com- 
mittee to address you in their behalf, and urge 
you to prompt and energetic efforts in the ap- 
pointment of delegates from your State and sec- 
tion, to meet delegates from the other Southern 
States, in Philadelphia, on the first Monday in 
September next. By the strong ties of common 
sufferings in the past, and the dangers present 
and future which surround us, we appeal to you, 
once more, to come to the rescue in a moment of 
imminent danger to yourselves and our country. 



We had all hoped that when treason was beaten 
in the field, and her armed traitors captive to 
the Govern^nent which they had wickedly souo-ht 
to destro3% we of the South who, through four 
long years of untold sufferings and horrors, ad- 
hered to her fortunes and her banner amidst all 
the changes and vicissitudes of war, would at 
least receive protection to all the constitu'iional 
rights of American citizens. We relied confi- 
dently on the sense of justice and gratitude of 
the loyal citizens of the United States, through 
their Senators and Representatives in Congress, 
to guard, in the most effectual manner, our future 
peace and security against the malevolence, vin- 
dictiveness, hate, and disloyalty' of the late rebels. 
This confidence, we believe, has not been mis- 
placed. We relied, too, as we had a right to 
rely, on the earnest and efficient co-operation of 
the Executive of the Nation, jjlaced in power by 
the great Union party of the country because of 
his supposed devotion to the Government, and 
his abhorrence of treason, and desire to see 
"intelligent conscious traitors" punished and 
made disreputable. We confidently ex})ected 
his hearty co-operation with the political de- 
partment of the Government in providing such 
governments in the States lately in rebellion as 
would protect the country from conspirators in 
official positions against its peace ; and secure to 
loyal citizenslife, liberty, and proj^erty, together 
with the inestimable privilege of impressing 
upon the minds of others his conscientious con- 
victions of truth, by speech or through the me- 
dium of the press. We also had reason to hope 
that the freedman as well as the loyal white 
man in the South would find ample protection 
for all his rights as an American citizen, by actual 
militarj' force if necessary, until equal laws and 
corrected public sentiment would place them on 
a firm and enduring basis. In these hopes, pre- 
dicated on the oft-repeated declarations of th& 
President, we have been grievously disappointed 
— cruelly deceived. We have neither seen 
treason made odious nor traitors disreputable 
by any act of the Executive of the Nation. We 
have seen traitors — leading, intelligent, conscious 
traitors — bearing away from the national capital 
with exultation, in the same pocket, indemnity 
for the past and indorsement and security for 
the future, in the form of special pardons and 
appointments to Federal office ; wliile leading 
intelligent Unionists were made conscious that 
fidelity to the Government was not the passport 
to Executive favor, but, on the contrary, servile 
subserviency to the President and his "policy," 
as against the deliberate and matured judgment 
of the loyal people of the United States, and tho 
constitutional power of the Senators and Repre- 
sentatives in Congress, was the only condition 
required of applicants for favor, whose claims 
thus sustained were, in no instance, impaired by- 
treasonable antecedents. 

We have seen our States that remained in re- 
bellion to the close of the war, without an excep- 
tion, remitted to the control of a rebel magis- 
tracy, elected by rebels to the exclusion of the 



^> 



friends of the Union. With one yoioe we can 
testify to the enconrageniont given to traitors 
and treasonable sentiments in the South in tlio 
(.ast twelve months, and the deep gloom and 
despondency which lias settled upon the minds 
and hearts of the loyal people in those States. 

When the effects of the President's policy was 
first felt to be pernicious and ruinous, we were 
justified — certainly excusable— in believing that 
it was but an error in judgment which would hu 
corrected by him with promptitude as soon as 
discovered. We had well hoped that he would 
hold to a just accountability those who, we be- 
lieved, had so grossly abused his clemency and 
apparent magnanimity. They have, doubtless, 
understood him far belter than we. The entire 
course of the rebels seems to meet his unqualified 
assent and ajjprobation. The election of an un- 
pardoned rybel to the chief magistracy of a 
rebel State, who, in his first message to the 
legislature, denounced the war on the part of the 
United States against the rebellion as the most 
unholy and disgraceful in character ever prac- 
tised by a Christian nation, had the efTect of pro- 
curing his speedy pardon. The entire control 
by late rcbils and pixsent conxpiratoris against the 
peace of the countrj' of eleven .States — men who 
cherish the most deadly hatred of all lovers of 
the Govcrnnient, and are threatening them with 
violence, as in the beginning of the rebellion ; 
who denounce the loyal people of the loyal 
States, and heap invectives on their loj'al Sen- 
ators and Kepresentatives in Congress, who, 
they praj-, may bo forcibly ejected by the bayo- 
net from the halls of the JCational Capitol, and 
the Government administered by the will of the 
President; — these, and such as these, together 
with their Northern sympathizers, are esteemed 
tit associates and counselors of the Chief Magis- 
trate of the nation, and constitute the material 
out of which a new party — the Johnson partj- — 
is to be formed to guide the country through its 
present perils and mould its future destinies. 

The leaders of this movement are well under- 
stood by the loyal country. The President and 
his friends, well knowing that he has forever 
forfeited the confidence of the great Union part}- 
which elected him, have madly determined to 
organize a new party of this " speckled jjrogen}- 
of many conjunctions." The effect has been to 
consolidate and crystallize the Union party. It 
stands to-day more compact, powerful, and con- 
fident than at any period of its existence. Its 
triumph in the approaching fall elections is not 
only certain, but will be overwhelming. What 
is the duty (jf the Unconditional Union men of 
the South, and what is to be their jiosition '.' 
Uur duty is to act with the friends of tiie Go\- 
ernment, who are our friends, and our on/j/ 
friemh. We must take our position with the loyal 
peojile and Congress of the nation, against the 
machinations of the new coalition of rebels and 
their Northern sympathizers. 

We can have no ufliliation with those who de- 
ride and hate us because of our love of the Union 
now and in the past, and who, there is abundant 



rea.son to believe, are at this moment again con- 
spiring to overthrow the Government. 

If those who are to constitute this new^ party 
should attain power and possess themselves of 
the control of the Government, what considera- 
tion may we expect at their hands, what mercy 
can we hope ? They have proved faithless to 
every pledge and obligation, however sacred, 
both before and since the rebellion. The most 
solemn oaths are used by them as a mere cloak 
for treachery ; and magnanimity and mercy, on 
the part of an outraged Government and its 
friends, arc impudently and insultingly derided 
the moment they are relieved from dread of 
punishment. No history furnishes an example 
of such incorrigible guilt and shameless men- 
dacity. 

To the Union party, and to that alone, we look 
for relief from our present unhappy condition, 
and for permanent security in the future. The 
party is powerful enough for success without 
our aid, but it is none the less our duty to sig- 
nalize our devotion to the principles of republi- 
can libert}-, which that party is so nobly sus- 
taining, by Ictive affirmative co-operation on 
our part. Moreover, if we wish the support, 
the countenance and protecting care of tho 
Union party to shield us from the dangers which 
now threaten us, we must not be afraid to make 
known to them our condition and dire necessities. 
It is scarcely too much to say that the Southeru 
Unionists, though too weak for self-protection, 
hold in their hands the key to the solution of the 
question of the reorganization of civil State gov- 
vernments in the South. We know it has been 
said that we have been ignored by all parties in 
and out of Congi'ess — that we are being ground 
to death between the upper and nether mill- 
stones. Let it be remembered that, as a party 
in the South, we have made no effort to mako 
known our wants, our condition, our hopes, or 
sufferings. 

We do assure j'ou that it is the w ish, the ar- 
dent desire and intention of Congress, to give 
us protection and securitj', when fully advised 
of our needs. 

Let us then perform our duty to ourselves 
and our country, by meeting together for con- 
sultation upon our })resent condition and future 
interests, and present to the country the united 
voice of the down-trodden Unionists of the South ; 
presenting a fearless and truthful statement of 
facts, which shall command the attention and 
challenge the confidence and sympathy of every 
friend of the Government and of human liberty 
throughout the land. 

It nuiy be tliat fear of the same despotism 
over the minds and consciences of men that 
existed in the beginning of the rebellion, and 
reigned supreme in the South during its continu- 
ance, will again assert its power, and condemn 
to extreme punishment those who nui}' dare to 
respond to our call. We have but to say that 
whatever danger threatens, and whatever sacri- 
fices are involved, we mud aid in breaking th" 
shackles that bind us. 



If the enemies of free government do not yet 
understand that the rights of American citizen- 
ship are to be paramount and supreme over the 
hellisli spirit born of slavery and nurtured by 
bigotry, ignorance, and prejudice, they will 
learn it in the throes and struggles of the next 
civil commotion which they and their abettors 
inaugurate. 

One other step, and they will have placed 
themselves forever without the pale of forgive- 
ness. The fiat has gone forth. The people of 
the United States have resolved that this shall 
he a Government of freedom and equal rights for 
J all : and woe to those who shall hereafter resist 
this solemn judgment. He who is guilty of a 
second rebellion to this Government will appeal 
in vain for pardon. Let us act boldly as becomes 
free men ; and if we should thereby incur dan- 
ger, the country will understand and appreciate 
the shameless hypocrisy of those who prate of 
their loyalty and right to readmission into the 
Union in one breath, and, in the next, excite a 
brutalized mob to violence upon a citizen for 
exercising the constitutional right of meeting 
his fellow-citizens to petition the political power 
of the nation for a redress of grievances. Let us 
tlo our duty, and trust to God and our loyal 
<;ountrymen for vindication and protection. 

We urge you to lose no time in making your 
nominations, by public meetings or otherwise, as 
may be most convenient to you. You can 
scarcely conceive the importance which gentle- 
men from every part of the country attach to 
this proposed meeting of Southern Unionists. 
We venture to say that we have, in a great 
measure, our destiny in our own hands. It is 
earnestly hoped that we will wisely use the 
power we possess. 

Your obedient servants, 

A. J. HAMILTON, of Texas, 
M. J. SAFFOLD, of Alabama, 
WM. B. STOKES, ot Tennessee, 
(Jommitlee. 



SOUTHERlSr LOYALISTS' CON- 
VENTION. 

Fir>it Day. 
The Delegates to the Southern Loyalists' Con- 
vention assembled at Independence Square on 
Monday, September 3d, 1860, when they were 
met by the Conference Delegates from the 
Northern States and escorted by the Union 
League of Philadelphia to their League House 
on Broad Street, and Charles Gibbons, Esq., 
on behalf of the League delivered the following- 
Address of Welcome: 

ADDRESS OF CHARLES GIBBONS, ESQ. 
Men of the South: The members of the 
Union League of Philadelphia greet you as 
fellow-loyalists and citizens of the United States. 
On their behalf and by their authority I wel- 
come you here to-day as friends and brethren. 
There is no stain of loyal blood on your hands. 



Your souls are free from the guilt of treason 
against our common country. We know some- 
tliing — perhaps but little — of the sacrifices you 
have made, of the persecution you have endured, 
of the heavy afflictions you have been through, 
all the dreary years of the Rebellion, for your 
fidelity to the Constitution and your devotion to 
the American Union. Many of your homes 
have been desolated, your pleasant places laid 
waste, and your wives and helpless children 
driven into exile, with breaking hearts, in 
penury and anguish, by the fiendish hate of 
traitors, who sought to make your loyalty a 
crime and to tear the United States from the 
map of nations ! Through all this persecution 
— unparalleled in the history of modern times — 
" in perils by your own countrymen, in perils 
among false brethren, in weariness and painful- 
ness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, 
in fastings often, in cold and nakedness," you 
have held fast your integrity, as the world 
knows and God knows. With unshaken faith in 
the ultimate triumph of good over evil, you 
have watched through the long night of your 
sorrow for the coming of that better day when 
the flag of j'our country would be your sure 
protection in the enjo3Tnent of your civil rights, 
when treason should be made infamous ; when 
traitors should be punished and the rod of 
political power which was smiting you should 
be placed in your own hands. Brothers ! during 
all these years of your separation from us, we 
too have been in sorrow ! Our homes in the 
North have been filled with lamentation for the 
fathers and the sons slain in battle or starved to 
death by thousands in the prison-pens of Vir- 
ginia and Georgia. The bodies of three hundred 
tliousand Nortliern men, loyal and faithful in 
their lives, victims of treason, slavery, and 
lebelllon, now fill that horrid gap that divided 
the loyalty of the North from the loyalty of the 
South ! While the war was raging round your 
homes, although our sympathy was intensified 
by our own sorrows, it could not express itself 
in words but it flashed from a million Northern 
bayonets, and was pronounced by the mouths of 
Northern cannon, and thus it spoke in deeds! 
Earnestly stirring our souls to their very depths, 
it will live forever in secret association with our 
own heroic dead ! These " Boys in Blue," sons 
of the North, who " raillied round the flag " and 
advanced it, through fire and blood, till its 
power was supreme throughout the land ! these 
'■ Boys in Blue," part of your escort to-day, and 
their comrades everywhere, have written it ou 
the tablets of their hearts, never to be effaced, 
that treason is infamous ! For if it be not, what 
honor have they more than traitors? It is so 
written in every family Bible that contains a 
record of the death of a Union soldier or a Union 
refugee ; it is inscribed on every hearthstone of 
the North, where the little orphan child vainly 
awaits the return of his father from the Avar ; 
these Philadelphia firemen, fearless and_ ready 
men in every' danger, tender and considerate 
men in their care of the woimded soldiers and 



their helpless children ; these niechanios and 
business men. and laboring men, every one of 
whom would scorn to eat the bread of othcial 
patronnnje at the price of his manhood ; tliese 
trusty citizens of other States wlio unite witli us 
in our welcome to-da^-, all meet you and greet 
^•ou with that sentiment that glows in tlieir 
loyal hearts, and binds together bj' a chain of 
sympathy that no adversity can break — " Treason 
is infamous." But our sympathy would not be 
full or cordial if it halted here. It goes much 
further. It is the honest sentiment of the North, 
held and uttered in the interests of I'nion, of 
lieace, and of Christianity, that when the South 
returns to her duty, she must come in new robes, 
with new covenants for liberty, equality, and 
justice, led bj' her own loyal Unionists, who are 
free from the guilt of treason. P'or what hope 
have we in the future, or what security have 
you if unpunished and impenitent traitors shall 
be reinstated in power by the arbitrarj- and 
besotted will of one man, under a Constitution 
which they have deliberately forsworn. The 
answer is already wiitten in the blood of the 
murdered loyalists of New Orleans. Men of the 
South, you are here on a high and solemn 
mission, having fcjr its object the re-establish- 
ment of the American Union on the broad and 
sure foundations of equal and exact justice to all 
men. It can stand upon none other. We liave 
no right to presume that the Great Ruler of the 
universe has permitted us to prevail over our 
enemies only to renew in other forms the 
oppression which in His providence has been 
overthrown. We cannot be so unmindful of all 
the lessons of the past as to be led by vagrant 
politicians into another compromise with crime, 
instead of lifting up from desperation those who 
have been its victims. Welcome, then, loyal 
brethren of the South, on your noble mission to 
the City of Philadelj)hia. Here, where the 
founders of Pennsylvania inaugurated his " holy 
experiment" of a Clovernuient based on the 
equalit}' of man; here, where, a century later, 
the Kepresentatives of the Thirteen Colonies 
imanimously declared it as a self-evident truth 
that "all men are created equal ; " here, where 
Iho Constitution was formed and the I'nion 
consummated; here, where the Government was 
administered justly and in its purity by that 
illustrious man whose 

Name alone strikes every li\ itip dead ; 

here, in Philadelphia, you aie welcome, thrice 
welcome ! 

Gov. A. J. H.\Mii,TO.v, of Tex-as, on behalf of 
the Southern Loyalists, responded. 

REPLY OF GOV. HAMILTON. 
Sir: In behalf of the assembly of Loyalists of 
the South, it becomes my pleasing duty to ac- 
knowledge and resj)ond to tlie we'come that you 
have just pronounced in behalf of the Inion 
League, and other associations of the City of 
Philade1])hia, a dutj- that v.ould be unmixed with 
pleasure, were it nut thut I cannot but remember 



the cost of our assembly. I thank j-ou, Sir, in 
the name of the Loj-alists of the South, for the 
manner in which you have characterized this 
devotion to the Union. It is but just ; I feel it 
in my heart. Spare me, fellow-citizens, the re- 
cital of the scenes through which we have passed. 
Let me at once din.'ct mj-self to the present oc- 
casion — the cause of our assembling. We had 
well hoped that after the triumph of the armies 
of the Government of the United States in thel 
suppression of rebellion against the authority of ' 
the (iovernment, that those of us who had suf- 
fered so long and so i)atiently, would have some 
indemnity for the past. If not that, at least se- 
curity for the future. We had fondly lioped 
that we V. ould be permitted to return peaceably 
to our old habitations, to renew our associations 
with friends from whom wc had been eo long 
parted ; that we could once more embrace our 
wives and children, from whom many of us had 
been long separated ; that after the glorious is- 
sues of the war of the Rebellion, no one would 
be longer permitted to molest or make us afraid, 
liut these hopes proved delusive. The experience 
of twelve months has taught us in bitterness of 
heart that what we considered a contest of prin- 
ciple as well as of arms, has but resulted in a 
measure of physical strength between the North 
and the South, and that to-daj' the spirit that 
animated the Rebellion, and called it to the con- 
test of arms with the only pure Republic under 
Heaven, is as rampant to-da}- as the day when 
it first attacked the Government of our land. 
The prosecution of all who gave adhesion to the 
Government of the South, and periled life and 
propert}-, is as rampant, as incorrigible, as de- 
pendent, as destructive, as vindictive, and 
cruel as it was, at any period during the Rebel- 
lion. Seeing this, feeling its realization that so 
far as being remitted back to the jieaceful homes, 
that we were but remitted back to the control 
of the same element that sought our destruction. 
A few of us in that condition from the South 
had happened to be up at the National CapitoL 
casting about what we should do, characterized 
by a desire for the preservation of the Govern- 
ment. We deemed the time jjropitious to call 
upon the Unionists of the South to send delegates 
to meet and consult together as to the condition 
of ourselves and of our common people. We 
believed we saw not otdy danger to ourselves, 
but a cloud, though not larger than the hand of 
nmn, on the verge of the hori/.jn. We deter- 
mined to make the call. The question recurred, 
where will we meetV We knew well there was 
no congenial spot of soil in all the South. 

Where could we rro ? Instinctively our evt 
turned to the goodly City of Philadelphia, thu 
place where civil, constitutional liberty upon 
the American continent had its birth; there, in 
the City of Franklin; there, in the shade of old 
Liberty Hall, Independence Hall, if we might 
not meet and consult there with the apj)roving 
snulesof its citizens, where, under heaven, more 
propitious? 

Wc have come, assured before we left our 



homes, that we wo\ild meet a welcome, but, as 
much as we had heard of the hospitalities of this 
goodly city, far-famed as it is, it has far out- 
stripped our expectations. For this welcome, 
8ir, in the name of the loved men here assem- 
bled in conTention, as loyal citizens that repre- 
sent every man, woman, and child, white and 
black, in the South, we tender you our hearty 
thanks. 

We come to this Convention because we real- 
ize the fact in our condition at home that no 
principle, so far as it has application to the Ad- 
ministration is concerned, has been settled by 
*the late contest. We realized that our fond hope 
that this Government would be such a govern- 
ment as our fathers intended when they framed 
it, giving not only freedom to every human being 
within it, but placing it on a sure foundation 
better than liberty, actual protection to every 
citizen. The result was not to be the principle 
upon which the Government was to be admin- 
istered, but that we were left in the old condi- 
tion to be remitted back to the tender mercies of 
the State which at their will and tender discre- 
tion might strike down the principles of human 
Tights, and no protecting power be found in 
them. It is because, Sir, we believe the time 
was propitious to bring back the people of the 
Government to the primitive ideas of the Re- 
public, to organize a party, or rather to improve 
the organization of the party devoted to the 
3lepublican principles, to bring it back upon the 
«ld platform of the Constitutional rights of every 
citizen in our land, that this convention has been 
convened. We invoke the assistance, prayers, and 
counsel of all our brethren everywhere through- 
-out the United States. We ask all loyal dele- 
gations from the loyal States that came here, to 
give us the hand of welcome, not only to meet us, 
but to help us to remodel our Government in 
a purer, nobler faith than ever before — to prove 
to the President, Cabinet, and to his counselors 
•everywhere, that the people of the United States, 
[North and South, who are the loyalists to gov- 
ern, will be satisfied with nothing less than 
sictual security and individual equality and equal 
rights under the Constitution, as our forefathers 
gave it. If we can be met in this, Sir, our hearts 
are with you. Our fortimes have long since 
"been expended ; we have none. 

Sept. 3, 1866, 1 o'clock. 

The delegates having met pursuant to the 
call, the Convention was called to order by the 
lion. W. B. Stokes, of Tennessee, who said : 

Gentlemen of the Convention: I now pro- 
ceed to announce the m.^eting of the true loyal 
'aen of the South. A few months ago, a few 
Union men in the City of Washington, feeling 
that the time had come when the true loyal men 
of the South should convene and declare their 
condition, their situation, both political, moral 
imd social, issued a call for the loyal people of 
the South to assemble in Convention, in the ( ity 
of Philadelphia, on this the 3d day of September. 

I will now proceed to read the' call. 



The call having been read, the hon. gentleman 
remarked : 

At the time this call was made it was believed 
by those who made it that the time had come 
when the loj'al people of the South should take 
action. Hence the call was made. It had been 
clearly demonstrated, and it is being demonstrated 
every day more clearl}% that the call was made 
none too soon — that the crisis had come. There 
are to-day but two political parties in the nation, 
and the question now before the American peo- 
ple is whether the loyal people — the men who 
have carried the flag — who have preserved civil 
and religious liberty in the nation, shall rule, or 
whether the power shall be with those who 
would betray it. You have met here to-day, 
fellow-citizens, to perform one of the greatest 
works that has ever been performed in this 
nation. I hope and trust and believe that you 
' are men of discretion, that you are men of 
! judgment, and I know that you are men of 
I patriotism. I know tliat you will stand by 
, your country and by its flag. We are here to-day 
! from every State in the South, The loyal men 
I of the North are also here and ready to go 
hand in hand with us to meet this great 
political partJ^ at the head of which the Execu- 
tive of the nation has placed himself We will 
be enough for them, and we will meet this party 
at the ballot-box ; and I know that when the 
time comes the loyal men of the nation will 
rise in their might and strength. I will not 
detain you longer, as I am anxious that the 
business for which the Convention met should 
progress. I desire to see the Convention organ- 
ize and go about its work, and when we do go 
about it I trust that we will do so as men, and 
act fearlessly, knowing that we are traveling in 
the right road. 

The Convention was organized by calling the 
Hon. Thomas J. Durant, of Louisiana, to the 
chair, who, on motion of Dr. R. O. Sidney, of 
Mississippi, was unanimously elected temporary 
chairman. Being conducted to the chair, Mr. 
Durant addressed the Convention as follow^ 

For this exalted and unmerited complKent 
from the loj'al men of the South, I thank you, 
with sentiments of the deepest gratitude. The 
honor whicli you have conferred upon me will 
long live in my recollection, and in after years 
shall linger among the greenest spots in memory's 
waste. For more protracted discourse, this is 
neither time nor place ; but now and here we 
should rather and more appropriately proceed at 
once to the execution of the patriotic and solemn 
duty which has gathered us together from the 
near and more distant regions of our beloved 
South. I will therefore invite you to make such 
motions as shall complete that temporary organ- 
ization which i& necessary for the preliminary 
pm-poses of this Convention. I presume it will 
be, in the first place, the appointment of one or 
more secretaries temporarily, to record your 
proceedings. 

Weston Flint of Missouri, Thomas W. Conway 
of Louisiana, C. G. Baylor of Georgia, A. M_ 



Crane of Arizona, A. W. Campbell of West 
Virginia, Judge Lanman of Tennessee, ami 
Albert Mace of Marjland. were nominated, and 
no objection being made, were confirmed as 
temporary Secretaries of the Convention. 

Mr. Stokes — In accordance, gentlemen of tbe 
Convention, with a custom, never, I hope, to be 
deviated from in the deliberations of any Con- 
vention of the loyal men of our country, these 
proceedings should be opened by an invocation 
for the mercy of Divine Providence upon our delib- 
erations. In accordance as I am informed, gen- 
tlemen, with a desire of the great majority of the 
Convention, and of the gentlemen who kindly 
acted as a preliminary Committee to facilitate 
our arrangements and proceedings, I will call 
npon the reverend gentleman who has been des- 
ignated for the purpose to perform that function 
—the Rev. J. W. Jackson of this Cit}-. 

PR.WER BY THE REV. MR. JACKSON. 

O Lord, our Heavenly Father, the mighty Ruler 
of the Universe, Creator of all men, we approach 
Thee in the name and pleading the merits of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the atoning sacrifice and 
the interceding High Priest for all men. In Tli}- 
good Providence, these men of the South, faith- 
ful to the Government of their Fathers — to tiie 
principles of civil and religious liberty em- 
bodied in the National charter proclaiming the 
civil rights of all men — have met in this birtii- 
place of the Nation to confer together in relation 
to the great questions growing out of tiie bloody 
strife of over four years of rebellion inaugurated 
in the interests of the monstrous iniquity of 
American Slavery. 

Bless the deliberations of tiiis body. Inspire 
the understandings of Thy servants that their 
speech may be such as becometh men delibt-rat- 
ing in the fear of God over tlie iini)eriled inter- 
ests of Constitutional Government. 

We give Thee humble and hearty thanks that 
Thou has preserved their lives in the midst of 
jjast dangers too terrible for human speech to 
jiortray. For the sake of the union of these States 
iq)On the principles of liberty and equality they 
have hazarded property, personal liberty, yea, 
even life itself. Many of them have pined in dun- 
geons, fled to caves and caverns of tlie earth, wan- 
dered away from the homes of their childhood, the 
graves of their ancestry ; accepting willingly 
bonds, scourgings, imprisonments, exile, deaths, 
rather tlian the surrender of their Constitutional 
birthright — the inheritance of a continent conse- 
crated to llepubiican government under one 
flag. They weep for brothers fallen in thf con- 
flict. They tremble before the future threatening 
tlie loss of all for wliicli patriots liavc sufTered 
imd died. Lift up their bowed down heads; 
strengthen Uieir liearts, for the Lord God Oinnip- 
otent reignoth. Thou wilt not permit that the 
(lead fiUen in a struggle ao holy, sliall iiave died 
in vain. Tlie voic • of the brother's l)lood, miir- 
Ivr's for libertvand law, cricth to Tiiee froin 



the ground — and prefious shall their blood be 
in thy eight. Thou wilt hear ; Thou wilt judge 
the poor of Thy people ; Thou wilt save the chib 
dren of the needy ; Thou wilt break in pieces 
the power of the oppressor ! 

Oh, God, Thou hast been good unto this nation, 
and for all Thy goodness how terribly have they 
requited Thee ; with a high hand and an out- 
stretched arm, have we sinned against Thee, 
framing iniquity by law; oppressing the poor, 
robbingthchirelingofhis wages, perverting judg- 
ment and justice, and degrading Thine image into 
a thing to be bought and sold in the market-place. 
But Thou, leading us by. Thine own right hand 
and strong arm, hast delivered us ; Thou didst 
make the path of justice the only way of the na- 
tion's safety, and the wrath of man to praise 
Thee in the unloosing of every yoke, the break- 
ing of every bond. Now, • 0, Gotl ! we look to 
Thee. Warned by Thy judgments, incline our 
hearts to learn righteousness. Teach us as a 
people that righteousness exalteth a nation and 
that sin is a reproach to any people ; that Gov- 
ernments are ordained by Thee to be a terror to 
evil-doers, a revenger to execute wrath upon him 
that doeth evil, to be a praise to them that do 
well ; that if we obey not Thy voice Thou wilt 
cast us off. Teach this people to whom Thou 
hast committed government, as to none other, 
to execute righteous judgment in Thy fear, and 
by righteous legislation to secure to all people 
to whom, in Thy providence. Thou hast appointed 
this land for a heritage, the blessing of equal and 
exact justice before the law. Bless this one 
government by the people, of the people, 
and for the people, in its executive, legislative, 
and judicial departments, that they to whom are 
committed the authority and interests of a great 
nation may lead peaceable and quiet lives in all 
godliness and honesty, learning tlie will of the 
people in the will of God. Inspire the entire 
people with a love of country that many waters 
cannot quench, nor the floods drown. Keep us 
a nation faithful to the interests of humanity iu 
in the preservation of that form of government 
whose perpetuity can only be secured by equal 
and exact justice to all. 

Oh, our Father, we commit to Thee all our 
national and social interests. The earth is Thine 
and the kingdoms thereof. Endue these Thy 
servants in Convention assembled jilenteously 
with heavenly gifts ; grant, them in heilth and 
prosperity, long to live, and finally, after this 
life, to attain everla.sting joy and felicity. Pre- 
serve the lives and health of their faiiiilies dur- 
ing their absence. Overrule all strite and debate 
among us as a people to the honor and i^Iory of 
Thy great name, to the cstablisliiiieiit of justice, 
the insurance of domestic tranquillity, the promo- 
tion of the iiublic Welfare, and to the security of 
the blessings of civil and religious liberty to all 
classes of the people and to tlieir posterity for- 
ever. Amen. 

Then followed the Lord's Pr.iyer, responded 
to bv the Convention. 



The roll of the States was then called, and the 
following members were named as the Com- 
mittee on Credentials: 

COMMITTEE ON CREDENTIALS. 

Texas Hon. J AS. H. BELL. 

Tennessee Gen. HORACE H. THOMAS. 

Louisiana WM. R. CRANE. 

Virginia GEORGE R. GILMER. 

W. Virginia ... .G^yi. R. S. NORTHCOTT 

Georgia G. W. ASHBURN. 

Alabama D. H. BINGHAM. 

Kentucky R. C. GWATHNEY. 

Mississippi JOSEPH W. FIELD. 

Missouri Col. F. T. LEDERGERBER. 

Arkansas Gen. A. A. C. RODGERS. 

.V. Carolina.... 11. K. FURNISS. 

Maryland Gen. A. W. DEXNISON. 

Delaware JOHN H. ADAMS. 

Florida C. L. ROBINSON. 

n. of Columbia. D. C. FORNEY. 

SERGEANT-.'iT-ARMS. 

On motion of a delegate, William 11. ITcydt, 
Sergeant-at-Arms of the Tennessee J-egislature, 
was appointed Sergeant-r-t-Anns of this Con- 
vention. 

committee on permanent organization. 
Mr. Miller, Missouri, moved that a Committee 
on Permanent Organization, to consist of one 
member from each State represented, be ap- 
pointed in the same manner as the Committee 
on Credentials. 

COMMITTEE ON PERMANENT ORGANIZATION. 

Geo. Rj'e, Norfolk, Vii'ginla ; Gen. Madison 
Miller, Missouri ; Henry Stockbridge, Mary- 
hmd ; Cornelius Curtis, Florida ; Jerome Hinds. 
Alabama ; James L. Dunning, Georgia ; R. O. 
Sidney, Mississippi; C. Caldwell, Texas; John 
II. Atkinson, West Virginia ; Max Cohnheim, 
District Columbia ; A. J. Fletcher, Tennessee ; 
II. W. Ilawes, Kentucky ; II. C. Warmouth, 
Louisiana ; David R. Goodloe, North Carolina ; 
John A; AUderdice, Delaware ; George Rodgers, 
Arkansas. 

The Convention then adjourned to meet at 10 
o'clock to-morrow. 



Second Day. 
The Convention assembled at 10 o'clock, the 
temporary chairman, Hon. Thos. J. Durant, of 
Louisiana, in the chair. The Rev. M. Matlack 
offered the following prayer : 

Almighty God, our Father who !\rt in Heaven ! We i-ecog- 
iiize Thee" us the Father of the spiiits of all men. We 
recosnize ourselves a.s a common brotherhood. We recog- 
nize a community in the family of men that makes it proper 
for all, honever inclined and governed, to say, Our Father 
who art in Heaven ! 

We come with gratitude in our hearts; we come with an 
humble trust. We have occasion of rejoicing; we have 
reason for reverence, for earnest solemnity, for deep solici- 
tude, and we ask Thy guidance. 

We pray Thee that O'lr nation may learn to deal justly 
and love mercy and walk humbly before Thee. Vv'e_ pray 
that this convocation may help to develop a sentiment 



which shall recognize that "righteousness e.xalteth a aa 
tion, while sin is a reproach to any people." 

We ask Thy blessing on our deliberations. We recognize 
in those who are present, men who were tried, and, by Thy 
might strengthening them, have sustained every test of 
loj'alty, and are here to testify their devotion to God, as 
well as to prepare for securing the permanent blessings of 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to themselves, and 
to all men forever. 

Oh, do Thou regard them favorably, and direct their 
minds, aiding them to follow out such lines of action a* 
shall conduce to tlie most permanent and glorious results. 
We ask these blsssings in the name and for the sake of the 
dear Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen. 

The Chairman then announced the order of 
business as follows : 

Gentlemen of the Convention : The first 
business in the orders of the day will be the re- 
port of the committee appointed yesterday on 
the credentials of members. The report of the 
committee is therefore now called for 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON CREDENTIALS. 

G. W. Ashburn, of Georgia, chairman on the 
committee on credentials, pi-esented a report, as 
follows : 

Resolved, That the Convention receive tlie re- 
port of the members from each State as final as 
to the qualifications of its members. 

Texas, 1.5 ; Louisiana, 81 ; Tennessee, 81 ; Vir- 
ginia, tU ; West Virginia, 51 ; Georgia, 9; Ala- 
bama, 4 ; Kentucky, 13; Mississippi, 3, Mis- 
souri, 30 ; Arkansas, 2 ; North Carolina, 6 ; 
Maryland, 60 ; Delaware, 6 ; Florida, 7 ; District 
of Columbia, 27. Total, 456. 

The report was adopted. 

]Mr Fletcher, of Tennessee, from committee 
on permanent organization, reported the follow- 
iug as officers of the Convention : 

PRESIDENT, 

lion. James Speed, of Kentucky. 

VICE-PRESIDENTS, 

E. M. Pease, of Texas. 

Anthony Fernandez, of Louisiana. 

Joseph W. Field, of Mississippi. 

I). H. Bingham of Louisiana. 

Colonel 0. R. Hart, of Florida. 

Gov. Wm. G. Brownlow, of Tennessee. 

Joseph II. Glover, of Kentucky. 

George P. Strong, of Missouri. 

II. C. Cole, of Georgia. 

Rev. Hope Beauty, of South Carolina. 

Hon. John Minor Botts, of Virginia. 

(tov. a. J. Boreman, of West Virginia. 

Gen. Joseph Gerhardt, District of Columbia, 

Hon. J. A. J. Creswell, of Maryland. 

A. A. C. Rodgers, of Arkans^as. 

Thos. B. Goursey, of Delaware. 

SECRETARIES, 

Col. Weston Flint, of Missouri. 
Samuel C Mercer, of Tennessee. 
John T. Ensor, of I\Iaryland. 
Henry W. Davis, of Missis.^ippi. 
Col. Charles C. Gill, of Kentucky. 
C. G. liaylor, of Georgia. 



J. W. Wynone, of North Carolina. 

John II. Adiims, of Delaware. 

Jud^c N. F. Sattbkl, of Alabaina. 

J. ^. Boyd, of "U'est Virginia. 

Jesse Stanctll, of Texa?". 

Peter A. Fenncrty, of Arkansa.*. 

E. Iliestand, of Louisiana. 

John W. Price, of Florida. 

S. P. IJrown, District of Columbia. 

CH.\PLAIN : 

Rev. John B. New-nian, D. D., of Louisiana. 

Tl»e report was adopted unanimously, and the 
Presiilent, the Hon. James Speed, of Kentucky, 
was conducted to the eliair by the Hon. A. J. 
Hamilton, of Texas, and Lysander Hill, of Vir- 
ginia. 

Judge Saffold, of Alabama, requested leave to 
withdraw his name as one of the Secretaries, 
wliich was agreed to. 

The President then spoke as follows : 

ADDRESS OF THE HON. JAMES SPEED. 
OF KENTUCKY. 

Gentlemen of the Convention, Loyal Men ok 
THE SoiTiiEKN States UEJiE ASSEMBLED : I thank 
you mo.st cordially for your kindness in callin-; 
me to preside over your deliberations. I fed 
tliat you could have called worthier men than I 
am. I take the j)08ition, however, and will till 
it to the best of ni}' abilitj-. In my time, 
gentlemen, I have received some lionors, and 
have borne tliem meekl}- ; but I feel in my 
lieart that the honor conferred on me this day 
by this Convention, voluntarily associated — 
Southern men, devoted to their country and to 
freedom — as the highest honor I have ever yet 
received. Though the position I hold to-day to 
many may seem a humble one, yet I feel, as you 
feel, that we are assembled here upon a grand 
and a great mission, and at a great time. V«'hy 
are we here, gentlemen ? ^V hy is it that .^o 
many of us have come from the furthest portions 
of this country, not at the request or upon the 
suggestion of those in power, but of our own 
accord and at our own expense — whj' is it. I saj', 
that we are here to-day V Why is it that wc 
have come to the good old City of I'liiladi Iphia ; 
and above all, why is it that when we did come 
here the hearts of this loj'al peoj)le were stirred, 
and tlu-y turned almost by millions to greet us 
with this spectacle? Did they come out .simjily 
to see " a reed shaken by the winfl ' " Did tlu-y 
come out simply for the purj>ose of seeing n:en. 
brave men, wlio are to-day wliat men ought to 
be to-morrow, who have had their trials in tlic 
jia.st and expect to meet others in the futuir .' 
They turned out to receive us and greet ns 
.somewhat upon our personal account, it may be, 
but mainly and chiefly because we are the 
representatives of a great truth. It was not to 
us as men so mudi as it was to the princijilcs 
which we represent; because in our ])ast lives 
wo had shown devotion to principle, and becatiM- 
wc were here for the purpose of renewing I'p'jii 



the altar of liberty, in this ancient Stale ano' 
among these loyal people, our jjlcdges, and 
declaring our purpose to stand by the jjriuciples 
upon which this Government is founded. I beg 
you, gentlemen, in the deliberations of this 
Convention, to bear this great fact in mind. 
Let it control your thoughts and actions. Let 
j'our thoughts and your actions be free, firm, 
clear, out-spoken, but dignified, loving and mer- 
cTul. AVhat principle is it then that we 
represent;! AVhy is it that we are here? Why 
is it that we received such an ovation upon out 
coming? What is it and how is it that the 
people of this great nation are stirred now aa 
they have rarely been stirred heretofore ? Just 
think of it ! Last June, eigliteen months ago, 
in this countr}', more than one million of men 
were arrayed in arras against each other. The 
passions which lead to bloodshed, the passions 
which were consequent upon the flowing of 
human blood, then swayed and controlled alike 
individuals and communities. The wliole country' 
was awake, and as it were on tiptoe, hearkening 
to the tread of great armies, listening to the 
echoes of battles coming in, or expecting more 
severe battles to follow. Then the countrj' wa.« 
stirred ; then the country was aroused ; but the 
great army of the Ilepublic, that army which 
had consecrated itself to Constitutional liberty 
and the establishment of freedom — that noble 
band of patriots and of warriors have performed 
the task assigned them ; nobl}' did they do their 
work. They disarmed traitors, dispersed the 
hostile bauds, destroyed the organized power of 
rebels, and took the arms from the hands of 
traitors and enen;ies. That band of patriots 
and warriors has been dispersed, and now they 
sit in this crowd, without epaulettes, without 
badge, without uniform. Their occupation yields 
to the ballot-box — yields to the regular ordeal 
and peaceful agencies of this Government, for 
the purpose of accomplishing the remainder of 
the work. Tlie soldiers of our army, in common 
with all good men, never wish to see war again. 
But the soldiers of our armj', as all good men, 
while they wish never to see war again, while, 
they wish to see peace, they wish peace estab- 

I lished upon principles permanent and sure; not 
a seeming peace; they wi^h principles established 

' which have their origin, because of their truth, 

j in tlie bosom of God himself. That is, the 
principles of equal justice and equal rights, and 

i equal security to every human being witliin the 
jurisdiction of the I'nited States. With Soutli- 

' ern men who have seen tliis great sin of Slavery 

, — which some said was the corner-stone of 

! Republican institutions — and say, with Southern 
men, wlio luive seen Slavery, do know not onl^ 

' historically, but we do know experimentally 
that it must perish from the face of the earth. 
We are here, then, and the country feels every - 

^ where that we are here in the interest of truth 
in this country; all the country feel.s, our 
adversaries feel, that since this Rebellion was 

; put d(;wn a Convention has sat in this place 
with which you and 1 could not act. 1 wy* 



10 



jrlad, however, to see it. And wliy was that 
here ? It was here, in part, because the great 
<:ry came up from the white man of the South, 
'• My constitutional and my natural rights are 
denied me." This was the great complaint, and 
if sincerely made on both sides, utterly antago- 
iiistic the one to the other. Which is right? 
That is for this Convention to say. Upon that 
juestion, if upon none other, as Southern men 
speak out your minds. Speak the truth as you 
j'eel it ; speak the truth as you know it ; speak 
the truth as you feel for your country; speak 
i.he truth as you love permanent peace, as you 
hope to establish the institutions of this Gov- 
ernment, so that our children and our children's 
children shall enjoy a peace that we have not 
tnown. I teU you, unless we do this, there can 
be no peace. Gentlemen, I say that but a short 
time ago, a Convention was held in this city. 
That Convention, to my mind, did much that 
v.as good; but it was not wholly immixed good. 
That Convention, as I read its history, came 
here and simply recorded, in abject submission, 
■.be commands of one man. That Convention 
did his commands; the loyal Congress of the 
United States refused to do it. Aye, and if you 
ever have a Congress in these United States of 
America, that does not resolutely and firmly 
refuse, as the present Congress has done, to be 
merely a recording secretary of the tyi-ant of 
the White House, American liberty is gone for 
ever. To ray mind, it is as important that 
<Jongress should be commended in this particular 
for that reason, independently of the merits of 
the question, and for the reason that they have 
fought for themselves, that they have spoken 
for themselves, and that they have stood up 
against all sorts of influences for that which 
they believed and knew to be right. I am sorry 
for the dead silence, sorry for the want of 
freedom of thought and of speech that tnarked 
1.hat Convention. Still, as I have said, its 
proceedings were not unmixed with good. What 
ijood sprang from that Convention ? Gentlemen, 
you all know that we have had an old defiant 
jtarty, long the ruler of this country — quondam 
Democratic, quondam Copperhead. To my ap- 
prehension the vain characteristic of that pai-ty 
has been that it has been crusted all over with 
prejudice, covering up the light of truth and the 
Tight of day. I know their prejudice, for the 
rmost part, has been this, that Slavery was a 
divine institution, that it was a thing that should 
sot be discussed or spoken of; it was a household 
god. This was the conduct of this old defiant 
find proud party. At the August Convention 
the men of that party constituted a vast majority 
of the Convention. Now, mark gentlemen, one 
'if the resolutions of that Convention distinctly 
f aid that Slavery was abolished, and must never 
be reestablished. I ask you if this old Demo- 
cratic idea has not struck its colors and bowed 
in submission to this Republican party? There 
;i8 some good in that. It marks an event in the 
progress of human freedom. That this old, 
purblind party upon this subject has at last got 



this prejudice broken, and that it has come in. 
slowly and reluctantly it may be, but that it has 
gone so far as to acknowledge the fact that 
Slavery is abolished and ought not to be re- 
sumed. But further, we of the Republican 
party, we of the Union party, have gone further 
than that. In June, 1864, in the Convention at 
Baltimore which nominated Mr. Lincoln for the 
Pi-esidency and Mr. Johnson for the Vice-Presi- 
dency, it was announced that Slavery should be 
extirpated, taken out of our Constitution, root 
and branch, body and soul, every lineament and 
every fiber of it. Mark, gentlemen, the difference 
between the two. One is to extirpate, not simply 
to cut off the head or the limb of the terrible 
monster, but all the fearful consequences and 
incidents that resulted from Slavery. What are 
they? An equal representation. As long as 
Slavery remained, as long as there is a man, flo 
matter what his color, unrepresented in the 
Government, aye, as long as there is a man who, 
because of his color, cannot stand equal with 
his fellow-man in all the Courts of justice. All 
these incidents the great Republican party 
pledged themselves, if possible, should be extir- 
pated. Oh, you Southern men ! when you were 
at that time, as it were, in the prison-house of 
the South, when you heard this pledge, it came 
as the sweetest, surest note of hope that you 
had. We men of the South that were in that 
last and almost hopeless contest — we men of the 
South now here in this old city, under the 
sound and within hearing of that bell that first 
proclaimed freedom to all the nations of the 
world — here, where the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence was announced, that was afterwards bap- 
tized in the blood of the Revolution — here, 
where the Constitution of the United States 
sprung from the blood of the Revolution — here, 
we men of the South come to conjure this 
nation, come to conjure the men that made that 
declaration, in God's name, to fulfill it. There 
are, gentlemen of the Convention, other subjects 
which in my estimation should come before us 
and be considered by the Convention. I speak, 
of course, for myself, and for myself alone, 
when I call your attention to the subjects upon 
which, I think, more than all others, you ought 
to take action. It is said that the Southern 
States have abolished Slavery. I call the atten- 
tion of the Convention to the fact that every 
Southern State, North Carolina, I believe, alone 
excepted, have not of themselves, abolished 
Slavery, but have announced in their constitution 
that Slavery has been abolished by the militarj' 
power of the United States, and ought not to be 
reestablished. I want to call the attention of 
the Convention to this peculiar language. "When 
I first saw this expression several Southern 
gentlemen were in conversation with me and 1 
was assured by them that the language had 
been carefully selected with the view that it 
might never be said of them that they had 
assented to the abolition of Slavery and that 
hereafter, when represented in the Congress of 
the United States, they might demand of the 



11 



Government compensation for their emancipated 
slaves. It is not necessary for me to say before 
this Convention that tliey have no just right to 
any compensation. Altiiough if they will assume 
the vast debt which has been incurred by the 
Government of the United States because of 
their treason and rebellion we will pay them for 
their slaves. But independently of that, upon 
princii)le, they are not entitled to any compensa- 
tion. Then, gentlemen, this Conventiim ought 
to say to the people of this nation, if you would 
he secure and safe in this matter, fi.\ it in the 
Constitution of the United States, where no 
department of this Government can repeal it, 
that emancipated slaves are never to be paid for. 
Again, the youthern people, when they assem- 
bled and made their several State Constitutions, 
provided that the Rebel debt was not to be paid. 
Every Southerner knows with what reluctance 
they did that. It required the positive command 
<if the President and all the power of the 
Government to exact that enactment from them. 
That enactment will be repealed by Stiite action. 
They can, by State action, undo what they have 
done, and assume the payment of the debt 
which they have now under coercion repudiated. 
Write it down in the fundamental law of the 
land, and let the loj-al people see that it is thus 
written down that no money shall ever be paid 
<'iut of the coffers of the people, either North or 
South, for the overthrow and destruction of 
this Government. Upon these subjects, and 
more particularly on the subject of equal justice 
in representation, I think that this Convention 
ought to speak. These Southern men complain 
that their constitutional and national rights are 
"infringed. If they complain fairly, say so. If 
they ask more than justice, deny it. They have 
no right to it. If they ask that the vote and 
l)Ower of one white man in South Carolina shall 
tqual the vote and power of two white men in 
Pennsylvania, and you think it unjust, say so. 
If they ask less than ju.sticc, give them full 
measure, but if they ask more than justice, deny 
them. The disfranchisement of the Rebels 
iind the enfranchisement of the Blacks is also a 
subject which should come before tliis Conven- 
tion, and upon that suVyect, gentlemen, I have 
onlytosaj-: " Do nothing in anger. Do nothing 
in hatred. Do nothing from ill-will or revenge, 
but do that which justice and right, mercy and 
love shall dictate." Their work, and theirs 
alone, will endure for ever. That which is done 
in justice and mercy will be eternal. Let love 
— love for mankind, not love for this or that 
man, and for this or that party be j'our guide, 
your motive in what you may do, and such 
action will pour a hotter fire upon the heads and 
consciences of those who oppose you than all 
ihat can be done through spite or ill-will, or 
from a feeling of revi'ngc. 1 am of those who 
believe that love — love for God and love for 
man — i.s the oidy law of the world. I believi- 
ihat he who maiiifusts that love will act more 
thoroughly and efTcftu.Tlly than can tho bad ami 
vile of this world by any exhibition of passion 



and violence. Trusting, gentlemen of the Con- 
vention, that you will be deliberate but earne.-=t 
in your deliberations, and that you will maintain 
such order as I know you feel inclined to do, 1 
again thank you for the lionor which you have 
shown me. 

Resolutions were offered and adopted inviting 
Gen. John W. Geary, Gen. B. F. Butler, Gen. 
Burnside, Hon. Mayor !McMichael, Hon. B. F. 
Wade, and other Senators and Representatives 
in Congress, to seats on the platform. 

Resohitions were adopted for the appointment 
of a committee, to be composed of one delegate 
from each State, to prepare an address of the 
Convention to the People. Also a like commit- 
tee of one delegate from each State to prepare 
resolutions for the consideration of the Conven- 
tion. 

COMMITTEE ON ADDRESS. , 
Texas, the Hon. W. Paschal; Louisiana, the 
Hon. William S. Fish ; Tennessee, Dr. A. W. 
Hawkins ; Virginia, J. A. W. Hunnicutt ; West- 
ern Virginia, John II. Atkinson ; Georgia, G. W. 
Ashburn ; Alabama, M. J. Stackpole ; Kentucky, 
Dr. Thomas W. Coldstock ; Mississippi, R. B. 
Sidney; Missouri, the Hon. Samuel Knox; Ar- 
kansas, ; North Carolina, the Hon. 

Danl. R. Goodloe ; Maryland, the Hon. J. A. J. 
Creswell ; Delaware, John A. Alderdice; Flo- 
rida, the Hon. Philip Frazer ; District of Colum- 
bia, A. D. C. Forney. i 

COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS. 

Texas, Gov. A. J. Hamilton ; Louisiana, the 
Hon. Thomas J. r)urant ; Tennessee, the Hon. 
Wm. B. Stokes; Virginia, Lysander Hill; West 
Virginia, A. N. Campbell ; (Jeorgia ; Capt. J. E. 
Bryant ; Alabama, Albert Griffin ; Kentucky, Dr. 
II. J. Breckinridge ; Mississippi, James W. Field ; 
Missouri, Gov. Thomas C. Fletcher; Arkansas, 
Gen. A. II. Rogers; North Carolina, the Hon. 
A. H. Jones; Maryland, Charles C. Fulton; 
Delaware, Jacob ^loore ; Florida, Col. C. B. Hart ; 
District of Columbia, Dr. Boyd. 

The President then read the following tele- 
gram, which he had just received: 

To the President of the Loyalists in Conven- 
tion assembled: Cincinnati. Sept. 3, 18Gt"). — At 
an enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of Cincin- 
nati, it was resolved tliat we send our heartfelt 
greetings to our brethren in Philadelphia assem- 
bled. 

A motion was made and adopted to extend the 
invitation to Miss Anna Dickinson to take a seat 
on the platform. 

A letter was read from the Union League Club 
of New Vork City, inviting the Convention of 
Southern delegates to attend i.Tid ])articipate in a 
massmeeting in that city soon after the adjourn- 
ment of tlie Convention. 

On motion of Gen. Hamilton, of Texas, the 
invitation was accepted, and a Committee of five 
appointed to respond to the invitation and fix 
the time for the meeting. 



12 



.ni).if^^*^^ 



The Committee consists of the following gen- 
tlemen : Gov. Hamilton of Texas, Gov. Boreman 
of West Virginia, C. W. Butz of Virginia, Judge 
Bond of Maryland, and the Hon. Horace Maynard 
of Tennessee. 

On motion of the Hon. H. C. Warmouth, of 
Louisiana, it was ordered that a Committee of 
one from each State be appointed to procure a 
statement of the condition in which the loyal 
men of the non-reconstructed States have been 
placed by ^ Andrew^ Johnson's _ reconstruction 
policy. * 

The Committee was ajjpointed as follows : 

COMMITTEE ON RECONSTRUCTION. 

Texas, James II. Bell ; Louisiana, the Hon. H. 
C. Warmouth : Georgia, C. G. Baylor ; Alabama, 
Capt. D. H. Bingham ; Mississippi, R. 0. Sidney ; 
Arkansas, J. W. Bate ; North Carolina, A. yf. 
Fougeray ; Florida, Col. Hunt. '^ 

The letters which have been received by Capt. 
B. H. Bingham, Secretary of the Committee, who 
issued the call for the Convention in relation to 
the condition of affairs in the South, were, on 
motion of Mr. Albert Griffin, of Alabama, refer- 
red to the above Conunittee. 

The Hon. Hugh R. Bond, of Maryland, offered 
the following resolution, and asked that it be re- 
ferred to the Committee on Resolutions : 

Resolved, That this Convention urge the loyal 
men of the North to support Congress in demand- 
ing of the Southern States the guarantee of 
the Constitutional Amendment passed by Con- 
gress, and to call upon the patriotic men of the 
Loyal States to use their exertions to secure the 
ratification of this amendment by the States; 
and that we believe that the justice we mete shall 
be the measure of our safety ; and in our opinion 
there can be no permanent peace or security 
for the loyal men of the south without a return 
to negro suffrage. 

The resolution was referred to the Committee 
on Resolutions, 

Mr. Butts (Va.) offered the following resolu- 
tion: 

Resolved, That we now receive the delegates 
from the States who have sent their gallant sons 
to welcome us to the City of Philadelphia, in the 
following order, viz. : New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, 
Iowa, Connecticut, Vermont, California, Oregon, 
Nevada, Nebraska, Maine, New iiampshire, Kan- 
sas, and Colorado. 

Mr. Barr (Tenn.) moved to amend by substi- 
tuting the following : 

Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed 
l»y the President to wait upon the Northei'n 
delegiitions and invite them to seats in this 
body. 

Gov. Fletcher moved further to amend the re- 
solution, by providing that a committee of five 
members be appointed by the President to con- 
fer with the delegations from the Northern States 



and perfect arrangements with them to unite 
with the delegations from all the States and Ter- 
ritories who are now in the city. 

The Chair announced the following gentlemen 
as constituting the committee under the above 
resolution: Governor Fletcher, of Missouri ; Hon. 
John Minor Botts, of Virginia ; Col. Nunez, of 
Kentucky ; W. T. Willey, of West Virginia ; and 
Hon. N. B. Smithers, of Delaware. 

Senator Creswell (Md.) offered the following 
resolution, adopted by the Maryland delegation 
at a meeting last evening, and requested that it 
be referred to the Committee on Resolutions : 

Resolved, That the Union party of the Southern 
States accept, in all its length and breadth, the 
political platform offered to the nation in the 
amendments to the Constitution, passed by our 
late wise and patriotic Congress, and oppose the 
addition of any further requirements for the im- 
mediate admission of the late rebellious States. 

Mr. E. Hiestand, of Louisiana, offered the fol- 
lowing resolution : 

Resolved, That we, as the representatives of 
the loyal States lately in rebellion against the 
Government, demand of the President of the 
United States the publication of the testimony 
taken before the Military Commission appointed 
by Brevet Major-Gen. Baird, commanding the 
Department of Louisiana, to examine into the 
causes of the massacre of loyal men in the city 
of New Orleans, on the 30th day of July last, as 
well as the report made by the said commission, 
in order that the people of the United States 
may see the manner in which said massacre was 
resolved upon and deliberately executed by the 
reconstructed Rebels of the South. 

Referred to the Committee on Resolutions. 

Mr. C. G. Baylor, of Georgia, said : " I am re- 
quested by the Georgia delegation to report the 
following resolutions as the platform of our prin- 
ciples " : 

Resolved, That we forgive ar.d forget the wrong 
of secession, but do not propose to make it meri- 
torious; we propose to ignore it, but not to re- 
ward it ; we propose to accept and reward men 
who stand upon their own merits, and not on 
the wrong of secession ; vre propose to admit, 
into this delegation those who, renewing in good 
faith the dogma of State authority as opposed td 
National authority, are also willing to stand on 
the Republican doctrine of impartial suffrage 
and equality before the law. 

Signed by C. G. Baylor, H. S. Cole, G. W. 
Ashburn, and S. E. Bryant. 

The resolution was referred. 

The Louisiana and Alabama delegations made 
similar statements. 

General Hamilton, on behalf of the Texas 
delegation, announced that they endorsed the 
same sentiments. 

Mr. Lysander Hill stated that the majority of 
the Virginia delpgation also endorsed these sen- 
timents. 



13 



Gen. R. S. Norlhcott, from West Virginia, 
offered the following, which was adopted : 

Resolved, That suffrage is a sacred privilege, 
not an inalienaljle rijjht, but a privili'sjo which 
should be conferred on none but the loyal and 
intelligent. 

The resolution was referred. 

Mr. Hill, of Virginia, offered the following: 

Resolved, That we cordially endorse the action 
of Congress on the question of Reconstruction, 
so far as it has gone, but that we desire on this 
occa.sion to express, in the most unqualitied 
manner, our deep conviction that the only set- 
tlement of our national difticulties which can 
guarantee the stability of the Government and 
insure protection to the liberties and rights of 
all men, must be based upon impartial manhood 
suffrage; without it, the Unionists of the South 
are in a minority and are at the mercy of traitors; 
with it, they are a strong majority and can en- 
force allegiance to the laws. Every considera- 
tion of justice, expediency, and consistency 
with the principles upon which our (Government 
was founded demands it, and we call upon tht; 
loyal North, in their coming elections, to instruct 
our Congress, when it shall meet again, to add 
to the Constitution this last and most effectual 
guarantee of the permanence of our Republic. 

The resolution was referred to the Committee 
on Resolutions. 

Mr. Mullins, of Tennessee, offered the follow- 
ing resolution : 

Resolved, That the vote on all questions brought 
before this Coavention shall be taken by States, 
and that each State shall be allowed the number 
of representatives that such State had in Con- 
gress in the years 1850 and 1860. 

Mr. Hamilton (Tenn.) hoped the resolution 
would not prevail. 

Mr. Mullins asked what other rule could be 
adopted to govern this body. Tennessee being 
largely represented here could vote down four 
or five States. He would submit to any proper 
amendment. 

A delegate from Maryland moved to amend 
by allowing votes to all the delegates in the Con- 
vention. 

Mr. Sands (Md.) wanted to do justice to all 
men ; but this was one of the most imf)ortarit 
days, days big with fate, that now dawniid upon 
the world. He would ajipeal to gentlemen from 
what were called unri'constructed States, and aslc 
them what the Convention could do for them V 
They could not give tht-m tlie b:ivonet, that was 
in the hands of the commander-in-chief of tiic 
armyand navy, who would sooner draw it against 
them than against the rebels. [Applause.] 

Mr. Mullins (Tenn.) — That is not the question 
before the house. 

Mr. Stokes (Tenn.) hoi)ed his friend from 
Maryland (Sands) would yield the floor in order 



that he might make an appeal to his friend from 
Tennessee (Mullins) to withdraw his resolution. 

I Mr. Mullins. — If it will j^ive him any satisfac- 
tion on earth, he may consider it withdrawn. 
Mr. Fletcher, of Tennessee, offered the foUow- 

I ing resolution, which was adopted: 

I Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed 
to prepare an address to the American people, 
showing the effect upon the loyal jieople of 
Tennessee of the policy promulgated by the 
President. 

GRANT A ND FA RRA G UT. 

The Secretary read a dispatch from Detroit 
announcing that Grant and Farragut had left the 
Presidential part^', whieli created the wildest 
enthusiasm, the entire Convention rising and 
waving their hats, and giving three cheers for 
Grant and Faragut. 

On motion, the Convention then adjourned till 
to-morrow morning at H) o'clock. 



Third Day. 
Wednesday, Sept. 5, 1866. 

The Convention was called to order by the 
the President at \()\ o'clock, and after prayer bv 
the Chaplain, Rev. I)r. J. P. Newman, 

The President announced that he yesterday 
received a conmmnieation from his Honor Morton 
McMichael, Mayor of the city of I'hiladelphia, 
but by some accident it had not been preseuted 
to the Convention. 

The communication was read, as follows: 

September 3, 186G. 
To the Delegates composing the Convention of 
Loyal Southern Unionists : 
Gentlemen: — At a special meeting of the Select 
and Commim Councils, held this day, the follow- 
ing preamble and resolutions were adopted : 

RESOLUTIONS OK WELCOME. 

Wherean, A Convention of Southern Unionists 
is to assemble in this city to-day for the purpose 
of devi.sing ways and means to give the States 
lately in rebellion their proper status in the 
American Union ; and 

Whereas, Said Convention will be composed of 
Southern men whr) reiiiuined true to tiie Govern- 
ment of the United States during the recent war ; 
and 

Whereas. The citizens of Philadelphia are ever 
true and alw^ays patriotic, abhorring treason and 
detesting traitors, but loving ])atriotism and de- 
lighting to honor patriots; therefore 

Resolved. By the Srieet and Common Councils 
of the city of Philadelphia, that we recognizi' 
tlie men about to assemble in convention in this 
lity as the true and tried patriots of the South. 
who risked tlieir lives and periled their fortunes 
to maintain their devotion to the (Government of 
the United States nmid the dangers and tria's of 
rebellion, and that iis such we honor them for 
their courage and love them for their tidcliry. 



14 



Resolved, That as a mark of our honor and 
esteem, the Mayor be and he is hereby requested 
to welcome them, and extend totliem the freedom 
of the city during their sojourn with us, and th;it 
a special committe of five members be and is 
hereby appointed to show them all the courtesy 
within their power. 

In fulfillment of these resolutions, I hereby 
tender to you, gentlemen, in the name of the 
municipal authorities, a cordial welcome to the 
city of Philadelphia. The sacrifices you have 
made and the sufferings you have endured in 
maintaining the national unity, have awakened 
in your behalf the warmest admiration and the 
deepest sympathy of our citizens; and the ob- 
jects you have met to promote will I'eceive from 
them their heartiest co-operation. 

During your stay among us, therefore, it will 
be our study to render you such courtesies in 
your private relations, and to secure to you such 
aid in j^our public deliberations as will at once 
mark our appreciation of your personal merits 
and your patriotic efforts. With assurances of 
the highest regard, I have the honor to be. 
MORTON McMICHAEL, 

Mayor of Philadelphia. 

Gen. Hammond, of Missouri. — Mr. President, 
the reception that we have received from the 
citizens of Philadelphia cannot but result in 
producing feelings of the most profound gratitude 
on our part. I move that a committee of five be 
appointed to tender our thanks and make a re- 
sponse to the invitation of the worthy Mayor 
and Council of Philadelphia. 

The motion was agreed to, and the following 
gentlemen appointed by the Chair as the com- 
mittee : Gen. Hammond, of Missouri ; Judge 
Sherwood, of Texas ; Wm. AVyne, of Tennessee ; 
Wra. Hill, of Viririnia; H. II. Torbert, of Mary- 
land. 

The following letter from the German Central 
Union League, of Mai-yland, was read : 

Baltimore, Md, Sept. 3, 1866. 

At a meeting of the " German Central Union 
League," of the State of Marjdand, held at the 
City of Baltimore, on the 3d day of September, 
1866, the following resolutions were unanimously 
adopted : 

Whereas, The majority of German-born citizens 
residing in the Southern States have been found 
on the side of the Union, and have sacrificed 
life, liberty, wealth, and happiness during the 
rebellion, and are even now struggling against 
the baneful influences of secession doctrines; 
and 

]\niereas, A Convention of demagogues and self- 
ish politicians was lately held at the City of 
Philadelphia, for no other apparent purpose than 
to break up the great Union Party which has so 
gloriously vindicated the supremacy of our na- 
tional Constitution by the overthrow of an armed 
rebellion, and to transfer and secure the power 



of government to the hands of unscrupulous ofiice 
seekers and unrepenting traitors ; and 

Whereas, A convention of loyal Southern men 
is now assembled at Philadelphia, Pa., soliciting' 
and claiming of all true Union men, firm and 
persevering efforts in favor of the principles of 
rational freedom and Republican Government, 
and their speedy extension over the rebellious 
states ; therefore. 

Resolved, That we heartily sympathize with 
the loyal people of the South in the dangers and 
humiliation they have to endure, and that we 
pledge ourselves that our firm and united efforts, 
as well in the pending elections as ever hereafter, 
shall be directed toward the establishment of 
perfect peace, harmony, and prosperity of all the 
States and people of this great Republic on the 
basis of justice and equal rights. 

Resolved, That we deeply deplore that a Con- 
vention of Southern Union men could not be 
held within the limits of the late rebellious States, 
and that we are fully convinced that the present 
insecure and deplorable state of affairs in the 
Southern States is the consequence of the unwise, 
traitorous policy which is pursued by our Chief 
Magistrate, and upon which we look with perfect 
detestation. 

Resolved, That we recognize the representa- 
tives of the people in tlie Congress assembled, as 
the only power competent to decide upon the 
terras and conditions of a restoration of the late 
rebellious States to their former rights and their 
relationship in the Union, and that we consider 
the amendments to the Constitution, proposed 
by the present Congress, not only as lenient in 
the highest degree toward traitors, but also as 
just, wise, and well adapted to secure the fruits 
of the triumph of principle, truth, and fealtj' 
over arrogance and treason; and we hope that 
all true Republicans, North and South, will sup- 
port aud accept in good faith those amendments 
as a basis of lasting peace. 

Resolved, That it is justly due to all loyal 
Southern men who have proved their loyalty in 
the days of danger and privation, that they 
should receive at the hands of Goverment not 
only guarantees for future security, but also a 
formal and a substantial reward in the disfran- 
chisement of the traitors and in the elevation of 
none but loyal men to offices of trust or emolu- 
ment. 

For the League, 

CHS. BARTELL, President. 

H. F. WELLINGHOFF, Cor. Sec. 

The following telegram and letters were read ; 

Syracuse, Sept. 4, 1866. 
To the Chairman of Convention of Southern Loy- 
alists, Phila. : 
The New York State Council of the Union 
League of America, congratulates their Southern 
friends on the happy auspices under which they 
are assembled in a loyal city. 

ISAAC M. SCHERMERHORN. 



15 



Kei) West, Florida, Aug. 18, 1866. 
To the Chainnan of the Southern Unionists' Con- 
vention, Philadelpliia, Pa. : 

Dear Sir : I \vith to contribute my uncondi- 
tional indorsement to the pending Constitutional 
Amendment. 

1 took the liberty (in Feb.) of suggesting: to 
ilessrs. Sunnier and Stevens an amenilinent that 
would give the National Legi.-lature discretion- 
ary power to enlarge, but not restrict the elective 
franchise in the States. Congress has done the 
next best thing, and proposed nn amendment 
that will aflord a presmre toward the enlarge- 
ment of the elective franchise. 

It will be uncompromisingly opposed by all of 
President Joiinson's reorganized State Govern- 
ments, looking even to the employment of force. 
The ghost of the late rebellion still walks abroad 
and is being rapidly galvanized into the spirit 
of another, to be ready at any moment to take 
corporeal form by ari/ud rcsin/ance to this amend- 
inetit at the beck of Northern copperheads. 

The amendment is a good evperimentum crucis, 
and is so thoroughly sound, reasonable, and projier 
in all its parts, that no disloj^al Legislature will 
adopt, and no loyal Legislature dare reject it. | 
Its extreme mildness is its greatest merit in one : 
point of view. Congress, witli all the loyal States 
in solid i>halanx at its back, and tlie disloyul 
alone obstinately and fool-hardily rejecting 
it, will then be brought face to fiice with the ne- 
cessity of sweeping away disloyal opposition by 
/•f-reorganizing these States, and in doing so will 
have the hearty support of the Nation. 
Very respectfully, Ac, 

SAMUEL WALKER. 

Charleston, 8. C, Aug. 31et, 1866. 
To the President and Members of the " Southern 
Loyalists' Convention," assembled in Phila- 
delphia, Penn. : 
Gentlemen : Ve have waited anxiously with 
the expectation that some demonstration woukl 
be made by some native loyal citizen or citizens 
of our State to secure representation at your 
[latriotic Convention. But you may search 
South Carolina as " with candles," and we very 
much doubt if a single native white citizen 
could be found who has the least sj-mpathy in 
this movement, or if lie has it, dares express it 
ojicnly. While our State and Massachusetts 
could go arm in arm into the recent "Union 
Convention," thereby presenting a Spectacle 
which, it is said, caused mortals to weep, it not 
(ingcis, not one solitary individual can be found 
who is willing in this cause to extend a friendly 
arm, even to those in sympathy with it from our 
sister Southern States. The delegates from this 
State to the convention recently gathered at 
Pliila<l(']pliia asserted that (he people here were 
all \oyiil, that thny " accepted the situation" in 
goo(.l faith, that the}' were disposed to treat all 
classes of our population with equal candor and 
juxtire, and that they were inclined to respect 
all laws and oljlii^ations which the regularly con- 
fctituted law-makers and the Conatitutiou of the 



country imposed upon tliem. Put the press and 
ihc people by their acts enii'.hatically contradict 
all thise representations. They do 7/o< "accept 
tlie situation." They wage constant and bitter 
war against it. Even Ni rthern men, who are 
here in oflicial capacities or wiih capital to in- 
vest, arc compelled to subject themselves in all 
their words and deeds to the "Froentstcuan bed 
of " Southern opinion," or they are ostracised 
entirely from social and civil life. Ministers of 
our holy religion and teachers ■who come hero 
solel}' to elevate the lowlj- from the degradation 
into which they have been plunged, are not only 
almost entirely ignored, but they are actually 
despised, and often sutler insult and abuse. Th.» 
illustrious Senators and Kejiresentatives in Con* 
gress who reflect the well-nigh unanimous senti- 
ment of the great North and West, and who by 
unparalleled n.ajorities enact laws and ordinances 
for the government of the country, are stigma- 
tized as a gang of lawless, unprincipled " fac- 
lionists" who are bent on the dtstruclion of the 
Government and the country. 

Such are a few indications of the kind of 
loyalty exhibited by this people. 

Gentlemen, delegates of the Convention, or.r 
sympathies are with you in your sublime ^^ orK. 
\\ are both pained and ashamed that South 
Carolina must be a blank at your incomparably 
important gathering. We admire the patriotism 
and the courage exhibited on your part in tak- 
ing this sublime step. We know the hazard of all 
{)nlitical as well as social position which you incur 
at home by this demonstration, and even tho 
l)eril of life itself to which you subject your- 
selves. 

Be firm in the right, be true to your country, 
to humanity, and to God, and our benedictions, 
isnd those of millions like us who are sighing for 
the rights and blessings which you propose 1'^ 
c'.afer upon us, will follow you ever. 

WILLIAM J. BROAhlE, Fresident, 
JAMES II. UAYNE, Secretary, 

U.L.A. Council Ko. 1. 
JOHN W. WRIGHT, Fresident, 
JAMES WILLIAMS, Secretary, 

U. L A Council Ko. 3. 
WM. B. NASn, Fresident, 
JAMES EDWARD, Secretary, 

U. L. A. Council Ko. 5, 
Columbia, S. V 

Col. W. S. Pope, of Missouri, offered the foi 
hawing resolutions: 

Resolved, That the one great and only practical 
issue before the ))eople at the present lime and 
in the coming elections is the indorsement or 
defeat of tiie C onstitutional amendment proposed 
to the people by the Thirty-ninth Congress. | 

Resolved, That as citizens of the I'nited States 
iind of our several States, wo will give all tho 
iissistance in our jiower to the adoption of tho 
< onstitutional amendment. 

Resolved, That wliik; we may and do regard 
iinjiartial suffrage as necessary to the most per- 
t'.ct form of republican government in eacU 



16 



State, we are opposed to maldng lefore the peo- 
ple any now general issue other than that pro- 
posed by Congress. 

Resolved, Tlmt our great object in coming here 
was to encournge our Northern friends in the 
noble cause they are pursuing, and to call upon 
them to return members to the next Congress 
who will continue to uphold the right of Unial 
■inen in I'eorganizing and ruling both the recently 
rebellious States and the whole Government. 

Referred to the Committee on Resolutions. 
Captain Charles L. Watrous, of Virginia, 
offered a resolution, as follows : 

Whereas, We believe that the safety of the 
Republic rests on the intelligence of its citizens, 
therefore be it 

Resolved, That it is the deliberate conviction 
of this Convention tliat free schools must per- 
form an indispensable work in the regeneration 
of the South, and ought to . be provided for by 
every State. 

Referred. 

Mr. George W. Sands, of Maryland, offered 
the following resolution, which was adopted: 

Resolved, That the Convention deeply sympa- 
thizes with all nationalities struggling to assert 
their inalienable rights to self-government, and 
heartily indorses all legislation looking to the 
modification of our neutrality laws as may in 
future prevent their use in the interests of 
tyranny. 

The resolution was referred. 

Mr. Patterson, of Tennessee, offered the fol- 
lowing- 

Resolved, That we sympathize with all nations 
throughout the world in their exertions to secure 
civil and leligious liberty, and especially at this 
time with long-oppressed and down-trodden Ire- 
}and, in her struggle for a place among the nations 
of the earth ; 

And that we recommend such change or modi- 
fication of our neutrality laws as shall no lunger 
render them the fit instrument for treachery and 
tyranny. 

Referred. 

Mr. J. AV. Fields, of Mississippi, offered a resol- 
ution, which was referred. 

Whereas, Notwithstanding there has been 
great diversity of opinion relative to the source 
from which the powers contained in the Consti- 
tution of the United States have been derived; 
whethnr from the people of the United States as 
constituting one community, or from the people 
as citizens of the several States; yet, the great 
and important end- proposed in its preamble, 
to wit, the national defense, the establishment of 
justice, &c., is secured by the delegation of 
powers fully adequate to their accomplishment, 
and given in perpetuity ; for, by the articles of 
confederation, the Union was made perpetual, 
and, by the Constitution, made more perfect; 
that is, all means necessary and proper to enforce 



a perfect accomplishment of the ends proposed 
in its preamble, as well as the powers more spe- 
cificall}^ designated; for, to construe the powers 
specially named so as to render them inadequate 
to the ends proposed, would argue f;n imbecility 
of mind and vagueness of purpose inconsistent 
with the character of any one of the able men 
who framed that instrument, and would be only 
worthy of such minds as have, by false construc- 
tion of its intent and meaning, brought it to the 
verge of destruction, after having, for more than 
half a century of violent party agitation, alien- 
ated one section from another and depraved the 
public taste and morality. 

Resolved, That though the powers of the 
Government of the United States are limited 
and defined, laws, as means to give them practi- 
cal efficacy, must be both necessary and proper, 
yet, such powers as are necessary to the exis- 
tence of the Union must be imlimited, and any 
power used for such purpose by the law-making 
branch of Government, must be deemed both 
necessary and proper 

1. Resolved, That whatever difference of opin- 
ion may exist relative to the powers granted to 
the law-making branch of the Government, yet, 
as the Union has been made perpetual and per- 
fect by conventional enactment, therefore, all 
laws made to secure this end, without which the 
Constitution is dead are both necessary and 
proper, and, of course, constitutional. 

2. Resolved', That if the Executive does at any 
time put barriers or obstructions in the way of 
giving efficacy to the public will, rs expressed by 
the representatives of the people, it becomes the 
duty of the lower house of Congress to impeach 
him, and have the constitutionality of his acts 
tried by the highest judicial tribunal known to 
the Constitution, for which purpose it was insti- 
tuted. 

8. Resolved, That all citizens of the United 
States who have withdrawn their allegiance from 
the Government thereof, and sworn to support 
the power and authority of anotlier, have lost 
their citizenship both State and national, and 
cannot exercise any rights as such until restored 
by com})liance with the naturalization laws, or 
such other means as the law-making power may 
dictate. 

4. Resolved, That loj^al citizens resident in 
the late so-called rebel States, have lost no rights 
by reason of the rebellious act of Iheir fellow- 
citizens, however numerous, and, therefore, 
should be indemnified for the loss of all property 
taken by the United States for public use. 

5. Revived, That the negroes of rebel citizens 
were forfeited as property, and properly appro- 
priated to humanity and the payment of a debt 
of national gratitude for services rendered their 
country during the war; but as loyal citizens 
have forfeited nothing, and their negroes taken 
to pay the debts aforesaid, the law-making power 
should see they are indemnified by that portion 
of the people who caused the sacrifice, or re- 
quire all citizens of the United States be equally 
taxed for that purpose. 



6. liMolved, That as by the war power of tlie 
^Joverunient of the United States, all slaves 
therein have been emancipated and made citi- 
zens of the United State.*, contrary to the de- 
cision of the supreme judicial judjjment, the 
power to defend it, iu part, may rightfully bo 
granted them by the exercise of the rijjht of 
suffrage. 

7, Resolved, That the power aforesaid ^ con- 
trary to the principles of the peaceful adminis- 
tration of the Constitution) should be exerci.-(Ml 
in a manner acceptable to the loval citizens of 
the late rebellious communities which, whilst it 
recoffnizes equality ol rights under the law, 
should withhold law-makinn- power, either direct 
or indirect, until made qualitii-d by some tixt-d 
standard established by loyal citizens of the 
several States, as is now fixed in the loyal States, 
or as Cocgress, under the war-power, may es- 
tablisli. 

Mr. Patterson, of Tennessee, offered the fol- 
lowing: 

Resolved, That if General Grant and Admiral 
Farragut have indeed abandoned the President 
on his electioneering tour, they be requested to I 
join this Convention in its loyal journey through , 
the land- [Great applause.] j 

Referred. 

Mr. Peter Neglej-, of Maryland, offered the 
following- 

Whereas, All proper instrumentalities for the 
complete success of the principles of the Repub- 
lican party ought to be praised and made use of, 
therefore. 

Resolved, That one of the most potent influ- 
ences to secure this will be to induce President 
Johnson to travel all over the loyal States and 
make jjolitical speeches such as he has lately 
made at Clevelaud, Ohio. [Laughter and ap- 
jdause.] 

Referred. 

Joseph Gearhart, of the District of Columbia, 
offered the following • 

Resolved, Tliat the will of one man was to have 
no moral force in the reconstructiou of our Union 
against the dictates of reason. 

Referred. 

Governor Wm. G Brownlow, of Tennessee, 
then offered the following : 

Resolved, Tliat the lamented death of that 
great leader of emancipation, champion of hu- 
man freedom, Henry Winter l>a\ is, of Maryland, 
filled the hearts of all Soutlurn loyidi.-^ls witii 
the profoundest sorrow, and that, led by his 
brilliant example, we will press onward untd 
loyalty and not treason shall be made respectable 
all over the republic. 

Adopted by acclamation. 

Mr. Branscomb, of Mi.ssouri, offered the fol- 
lowing resolution • 



Riaolved, That a committee of five be ajv 
pointed to report upon some plan, if thought ad- 
visable, whereby all the members of this Con- 
vention, or as many of them as can, shall start 
from this place, immediately after the adjourn- 
ment of this Convention, and proceed to St. 
Louis, Missouri, there to be received by the 
loyal men oi' that citj', and the route to be the 
same as the electioneering tour of the President; 
and that they be instructed to terminate their 
journey by a visit to the tomb of Abraham Lin- 
' coin, to pay that illustrious martyr to liberty the 
debt of admiration and gratitude due him from 
the true Union men of the South. 

The resolution was adopted, and the Chair ap- 
pointed the following gentlemen as the Com- 
mittee : 

C. 11. Branscomb, of Missouri; Albert Griffin, 
of Alabama; J. 11. Bell, of Texas; A. W. Camp- 
bell, of West Virginia ; llenrj^ Stockbridge, of 
Maryland. 

The following resolution, on the same subject, 
was also, on motion of Mr. Davis of Virginia, 
unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That the following-named gentlemen 
be added to the committee to visit St. Louis; 
Hon. John M. Botts, of Virginia , Hon. Thomas 
J. Durant, of Louisiana ; Col. Wm. B. Stokes, of 
Tennessee, Col. A. J. Hamilton, of Texas, and 
Hon. Francis Thomas, of Maryland. 

Mr. JIcKellip, of Maryland, offered the follow- 
ing resolution : 

Whereas, The President has described " Con- 
gress as a body hanging upon the verge of the 
Government," and whereas the State ot Ver- 
mont has just expressed its opinion at the bal- 
lot-box to continue to hang on that side, there- 
fore, be it 

Resolved, That we hereby tender the thanks 
of this ( onventiou to the loyal men of the State 
of Vermont for the ovei-whelming manner with 
which they have rebuked this Presidential sen- 
timent. 

Adopted. 

Mr. Robinson, of Florida, offered the following: 

Resolved, That the Union men of the State of 
Florida are to-day in a condition of complete 
subject iou to rebels, and our situation deplorable 
indet d , that negro suffraije would give us u 
controlling influence in that State. 

Referred. 

Colonel diaries E. Moss, of Missouri, then 
offered the following re^olutiou: 

Resolved, That the Committee on Resolutions 
be instructed to prepare a report imtl resolution 
favoring the conferring ot I lie riiht of suffrage 
upon all citizens, without regard to race or 
color. 

Colonel Moss then proceeded tu address the 
Convention as follows; 



16 



SPEECH OF MR. 3fOSS. 

Mr. Chairman, the interval which will elapse 
before the report of the Committee on Resolutions 
shall be made I propose to consume in the dis- 
cussion of a principle which must be considered. 
There can be no doubt it will be presented in 
Bome shape before this body, and I hope it will 
be adopted, at least so far as it affects the States 
lately in rebellion. It docs seem to me that we 
hav» arrived at that stage in the history of our 
country when we should rise above all prejudices, 
and that we should carry out in full that noble 
policy which was inaugurated by the lamented 
Lincoln. The war just concluded effectually 
blotted out Slavery from our institutions, and it 
now lies with us to remove every vestige from 
the States after destroying it. It is with that 
idea, in order that we can place ourselves right 
and found our institutions upon justice and upon 
those principles which were laid down in the 
glorious Declaration adopted in this city in 
i1^&, that I have offered this resolution. The 
enforcement of these laws of eternal justice will 
protect every loyal man, be he white or black, 
and the life of the nation, Mr. President, 
depends to-day upon Congress conferi'ing the 
rights of citizenship upon all loyal men ; and I 
would ask, further, what greater punishment can 
be inflicted upon Jefterson Davis and all the 
host of the Rebellion than by enfranchising and 
placing the right of suffrage in the bands of 
those men whom they held in servitude, in 
bondage, and for which they provoked a Rebel- 
lion unparalleled in all historj^? I say we 
should give these men the privilege of determin- 
ing their own lot. I would rejoice to see the 
loyal men of the country clothed with power to 
protect themselves, and to ensure the perpetuity 
of the American Union. It is for us, sir, to say 
whetlier or not by a majority of votes this 
justice should be decreed to them. Not only 
that ; there is another A'iew to be taken. I 
know we are beset here with the fears of some 
people ; but I think we can demonstrate before 
we go away that we are not going to hurt any 
of our Northern friends in the pending elections, 
neither in the Northern or Border States, by 
adopting a policy distasteful to them. We are 
to labor in the rehabilimcnt and reconstruction 
of States so as to render them proper for 
admission to the United States Congress. We 
must endeavor to send men to Washington not 
of the character of the man who became Presi- 
dent, but of the loyal men who are now sitting 
in council. I assert here to-day that no State is 
ready for full power and immunity in the 
American Union where 5,000, 10,000 or 15,000 
voters are in a situation to rule three times 
their number, where they can exercise with 
impunity the lowest passions in the human 
breast upon the consecrated heads of loyal men. 
The terrible blunders in the reconstruction of 
the States for the past years should teach us 
that fear is to be entertained from that power 
which now prevails in the South. But with 



suffrage extended to the freedmen of the South,, 
they can preserve the liberties of the white men 
as well as their own. I take it that we are not 
prepared to stand here to-day and say that we 
are going to indorse the legality of Andrew 
Johnson's provisional governments in the States. 
I ask you, friends, is that what you came here 
for ? I think not. But, I am sure, if Congress 
does its duty next winter, they can provide laws 
by which provisional Governments can be formed 
and by which those men who contributed their 
strength in restoring the Union shall be enfran- 
chised, and be permitted to vote, and elect 
members to their conventions. They will as- 
semble and adopt a Constitution, elect a Legis- 
lature, and instead of being compelled to trust 
to two-thirds majority in the North, 50 or 80 
representatives will be sent up from the South, 
sterling men m'Iio are true as steel, and 20 
Senators, to swell the Republican strength. Ask 
those men who are anxious to preserve power in 
the Government, if that is not the true policy. 
I maintain, sir, we should indorse it, and say to 
our Northern friends that there shall be no 
reconstruction until that principle is adopted. 
They are determined now that the eternal rules 
of justice shall prevail in all the States, and 
that the people of the South shall be placed in 
a condition in which they can be trusted. We 
do not come up here with the idea th.it admission 
into tlie Congress is the first great etep to be 
taken, and a thing to be looked to above all other 
things. The loj-al men of the South, it must be 
remembered, Avere driven from their homes, 
their lives were in peril, they cannot now live 
there, they have a tyrannical government. They 
are in the midst of men entertaining a devilish 
hate and a fiendish malice toward them, who 
would grind them down to degTadation, banish 
them from society and exclude them from all 
political power. If they succeed in their pur- 
])oses, the loyal men will be compelled to leave 
their homes and seek shelter in other States. 
Let us by all means not fail to do our dtity in this 
matter. Let us view the subject in all its 
bearings, and present it earnestly, forcibly, 
and candidly before the people of the country. 
Thus may we be enabled to accomplish a great 
and lasting good. This is what we came here 
for. It was clearly set forth in the call as our 
only remedy, and as the salvation of the people. 
Is there a man here who ever conversed with a 
refugee from the South, but who knows that the 
universal expression is in favor of a proposition 
of that kind? I am yet to find a loyal man 
from those States who has not declared time and 
again that that is their only salvation. Now let 
us look at this in another point of view. I am 
an American citizen, and I love this Government 
as firmly as any man can love it. I love its 
honor, its institutions. I love its freedom, and 
I feel that it is guilty of injustice if it stains its 
fair fame and honor, and we will all have to pay 
the direful penalty. Take our history up to the 
present, as it stands to-day. We see that a 
terrible trial visited this country, and that 



19 



300,000 Llack men were induced to present 
their bodies as a part of tlie bulwark to our 
liberties. Tlicy poured out their blood in the 
contest. They manifested a patriotism as lofty 
and unselfish as can be conceived, and when we 
consider the white man has enjoyed all the 
immunities and the full protection of the Gov- 
ernment, that they enjoyed all the favored 
blessings it could bestow, seems to rise higher in 
the scale of patriots. For many years they have 
been under the heel of a master, and kei)t in a 
state of servitude ; with the officers of the law 
pursuing and hunting them down, and dragging 
them back into slavery. All the acquaintance 
they had with the Government was in feeling 
its power to retain them in it. But when the 
contest came they rallied around the flag, they 
guided the lost soldier from the swamp, and 
assisted him in escaping from the prisons of the 
South. They have fed our men in the hour of 
hunger, and disjjlayed in a thousand ways the 
purest of patriotism. Is it now to be permitted 
that these men, so true in a contest so bitter, 
shall be trampled upon and cruelly treated by 
the enemies of our Union, while we can interpo.^e 
the ajgis of justice ? If this is neglected, we will 
be guilty of a foul injustice that we ought to be 
ashamed of. I want to know if our friends here 
are not prepared to throw off a little bit of 
prejudice, if they have any ? I know manj' of 
them have an idea that there may be some 
terrible consequences to result from this bugbear 
of negro sufirage that they talk about. I btaiul 
up here as a representative of the white race, 
and say that I believe we are their superiors. I 
do not believe they can hurt us, and the idea 
that we f-hould have laws placed upon oui" statute 
books saying that the}- .shall not make an equ;d 
race in lifj with us, I say is ridiculous and an 
insult to the white people. The negro's instincts 
have been a great deal bettor than the white 
man's. Why, sir, I cannot find any negro to 
believe that Andrew Johnson is an angel of light. 
If they had a negro Convention, they would 
never have that man on tiie ticket. They always 
believed that he was false, and I have it from 
the best authorit}' that they alwajs doubted his 
honesty and integrity. The white man, not as 
wise as the ignorant black man, took him up and 
elevated him to the oflicc — to his office — as 1 
have said before, not by the grace of God, but 
by the grace of assassination. lie his to-day 
President, and rules the nation. The best policv 
that can be adopted bv our friends, Nortli and 
South, is to stand boldly and squarely uj) fir 
principle. You can talk about tho loss of a few 
votes, and the effect upon tho elections or that 
sort of tiling as you will, Init I tell j-ou when 
you come up boldly, and fairly adopt tho princi- 
ples of tho Declaration of Independence, tiicn 
you will find that that policv will be adopted all 
over the South as wi-il. Look at it. 1 assert 
liere that nearly every candidate for Congr(■^s, 
who walked boldly up and took this position, i-i 
returned by a majority of thousands, wliile 
those who were wcak-kueed were elected barely 



" by the skin of their teeth." Take the policy 
of the reconstructed States. Virginia was re- 
constructed under very favorable circumstances 
but a short time ago, and no parchment laws 
could have disfranchised them more thoroughly. 
They had a small number of white people to 
stand by and execute tho laws and a large 
number of black men that they did not allow to 
help them to execute the laws, and a large 
majority of white men that would not allow 
them to execute them. By and by they will 
find their liberties in the hands of the disloyal, 
and that the loyal men cannot be elected. If 
they had given tho black men the ballot, they, 
and a small number of white men, could have 
aided in the enforcement of the law, and to-day 
you would have had loyal men in the Govern- 
ment, and probably my friend in the chair (Mr. 
Botts) might have been in Congress instead of 
those that we now see attempting to gain 
admission. There is not one single motive of 
expediency but what says to j-ou, " Gentlemen, 
j-ou must "do justice; you mu.st honor your flag; 
you must keep untarnished the honor and moral- 
itj- of your Government;" and I take it that 
this Government was formed to establish justice 
and to secure the blessings of liberty. This is 
not a question whether our colored friends shall 
vote; but it is a Cjuestian [The remainder of the 
sentence was drowned by loud cheering for 
(Jeneral Butler, who at that ujoment walked up 
the hall and took a seat on the dais]. Mr. 
Chairman, here is the strongest practical illus- 
tration of the question which occupies the 
hearts of tho people; there stands old Ben 
Butler. We know that it is not to Benjamin F. 
Butler as a man, but it is because he stands 
here representing that prii:ciple of loyalty and 
universal freedom which I am advocating before 
you now. I tell our friends here that if, in this 
Presidential campaign, they follow up our trai- 
torous Chief Magistrate, they will find a reception 
all over the North and West such as thcj' never 
yet conceived of. Our Western friends chose 
leaders that understand this question ; and the 
poor, honest soldier, who is not looking for a 
Senatorship or for seats as members of Congress, 
but for the good of the nation, and who desires 
to see to it that we shall not be again called to 
the field, goes for this very principle. They 
know it is neccssarj' for our peace, and our 
friends in the North I know will welcome you if 
you adopt it. I have no fears for the result of 
this great question. We only ])lace it as a rule 
of reconstruction for the rebellious States. I do 
not believe our noble Senators and Representa- 
tives that I see around me in this house, are pre- 
pared to come up and tell you and me that they 
are ever going to recognize Andrew Johnson's 
Provisional Government. If tiiey do. they will 
raise such a storm of indignation tiiat Andri'W 
Johnson will wish that he had never been born. 
[Applause.] They have got too far to be be- 
trayed in this manner, and the lessons of six or 
eight years back have been such that they will 
repudiate this temporizing policy. They are 



20 



accustomed to strong meat, and they require it 
for their safety and their peace. Be bold and 
fearless, and I know the Northern people well 
enough to be able to say that they will stand by 
you. [Applause.] They will see that you get 
what you ask. Come up squarely. Look at the 
effect 'of the temporizing policy that is now com- 
ing on. I ask every man to bear witness that in 
three years, if this policy is carried on, we will 
have a war of races as the results of the acts of 
these rebellious Southerners so constantly com- 
mitted in various sections of the country. You 
cannot arm three or four hundred thousand men 
against a community and then turn them loose 
in that community and expect to find them 
favorably received. The negro is a docile man. 
He loves peace and quiet ; he loves to live quietly 
and contentedly. He is naturally more indus- 
trious, at least,"^ than our miserable Rebels that 
want to trample his rights under their feet. If 
they let him alone he will be a good citizen, and 
do more to develop the South than all the Rebels 
that ever lived. I tell you, further, that if you 
do not take some such course to enable him to 
protect himself he will take the matter into his 
own hand, and God pity the Rebels when that 
day comes ! You may help the President in las 
efforts to assist Rebel white men, but we will 
never submit to be made instrmncnts to crush 
out a class of men whose only fault is that they 
have been too faithful. How long would it take, 
with a few more examples besides New Orleans 
— how easy it would be, to see the whole South 
in a flame V and, then, how are we to stop it ? 
And yet that is the price you have got to pay 
for it. I have heard a great deal about the effect 
it would have upon the Republican party in case 
we should do certain things. We have thou- 
sands of men who are determined to be trifled 
with no longer ; who have fought on our side 
and now desire to fight with us. If we refuse 
this, it will be said that the Republican party 
•was afraid, and Andrew Johnson will say they 
they dare not do what they came here to do. 
[Applause.] If, when your call professes to 
favor the equality of all men before the law, you 
go home yielding to outside pressure, Mr. John- 
son can justly say that you are " poor whites," 
and dare not say what you want, and he will 
have good reason to say so. Let us see what 
this Congressional policy is. You are not to let 
a Rebel or two sit in Congress ; that is all. It 
will not affect the non-reconstructed States at 
all ; but it leaves yourselves and your families 
in the hands of the wickedest traitors, and if you 
accede to that policy I would ask you how you 
are going to avoid it ? These are the consider- 
ations that v/e offer to you and to the men of the 
North. We ask yon if you are prepared to sus- 
tain it? I tell you that every just and good 
man can stand lipon this platform, and he need 
never be ashamed of it. [Applause.] Men 
came up here to say, " We are in favor of the 
principle, but for God's sake don't speak it out. 
Do you believe you will receive a single voter 
by having it out who would vote with you v.ith- 



out it ? I do not believe the people are prepared 
to say that they will desert loyalty, truth, union, 
justice and freedom merely because they are 
afraid the black man will have absolute and per- 
fect justice done hini. [Applause.] I do not 
believe you would afiect a single election in the 
North by means of it ; and I am not so certain 
that you would not lose a great many if you do 
not adopt it. [Applause.] The day of com- 
promises has passed away ; the day has passed 
away when our people would take up candidates 
for the Presidency on that ground. No man will 
get the confidence of the people that has not got 
nerve and backbone ; and I tell you, gentlemen, 
they will stand up to the occasion. 



On motion, the resolution offered by Mr. Moss, 
of Missouri, was referred to the Committee on 
Resolutions. 

An invitation from the Union League of Phila- 
delphia, was read and accepted, extended to all 
the members to participate in a grand banquet 
at 6 p. IJ. (this evening), at the Union League 
House. ~ - 

Mr. Smithers, of Delaware, from the Commit- 
tee appointed to meet the Committee of the 
Northern delegation, reported that upon confer- 
ence it had been agreed that the Convention 
should meet at U o'clock this evening and pro- 
ceed to Union League Hall, there to meet in 
Mass assemblage and fuse with the Northern 
delegation. [Applause.] 

He also reported that it Avas understood that 
upon arriving there the Loyal League of Phila- 
delphia, would appoint a presiding officer for 
both bodies, the ofhcers of the respective bodies 
acting under his supervision. [Applause.] 

The report was unanimously adopted, and the 
Convention then adjourned until to-morrow 
moruiug at 10 o'clock. 

Fourth Day. 
Fhiladelphia, Sept. 6, 18G6. 

The Convention met in National Hall at 10^ 
o'clock A. Ji. Prayer was ofiered by the Rev. 
Dr. Bedell. ^ , ^ 

Gen John H. Hammond, Chairman of the Com- 
mittee" cf five appointed by the Chair to respond 
to the resolutions of welcome presented by the 
Hon Morton McMichael, Mayor of Philadelphia, 
on beha'f cf the municipal authorities, whicli 
resolutions recognize the sacrifices made and 
sufferings endured by the Union men ot the 
South in behalf of Liberty and the Lnion, and 
which extend to the Convention a mo£t cordial 
welcome and the hospitalities of the city, reported 
the following as the response of the Committee . 

Fcsohed, That the sentiments uttered in the 
preamble are honorable and patriotic in Ih ■ 
highest degree, manifesting alike unflmchir , 
loyalty and unbounded devotion to the gloriou-; 
cause for which Philadelphia has done so iimca 
and with which she is so completely identified ; 
that the resolutions of welcome are \7orthy of this 
great city and generous people, and that no higher 



21 



praise can be accorJ.cd to a city and people that 
(luring five years of war poured forth millions of 
treasure and offered up thousands of their bravest 
and truest sons in the great cause of constitu- 
tional liberty, and who now, with open hands 
and hearts, have accorded to the loyal men of 
the South a glorious reception and hospitality, 
conferring honor alike on the givers and receiv- 
ers. 

Resolved. That the delegates to the Convention 
of Soutlu-rn Unionists, for the loyal people of the 
South and for themselves, with one voice assure 
the Mayor and Council, and through them the 
loyal citizens of Thiladdphia, of their deep and 
heartfelt gratitude now, and their good will and 
high esteem in all time to come. 

All of which is respoctfuUv submitted. 

JOHN II. ii.Vmmoxd, 

Chairman of the Committee. 

Members of the Committee present: 
A. L. Hill, Virginia. 
IIexry R. TouBfRT, J/a>-ya»2</. 
LoEEXZo SiitRwooD, Tcxas. 

The following dispatch was then rend bj- the 
Secretary : 

Syracuse, K. Y., Sept. 5, 1866. 
To Hon. James Speed, President of Convention 
at Philadelphia: 

By reiolution of the Picpublican Union State 
Convention, of the State of New York, now in 
session at Sj-racuse, I am directed to send greet- 
ing to the loyal men of the South now in conven- 
tion at Philadelphia, and to assure Iheni that the 
gi'cat heart of the people of New York beats in 
sympathy for them in their new and increased 
persecution by the substitution of the policy of 
Johnson for the despotism of Davis. New York 
wa3 never more determined than now in the 
complete overthrow of the rebellion and its 
cause and sympathizers, come whence and from 
where they may. A union against dangers in 
the past produces a more lively appreciation of 
your jiresent trial. You faltered not in your de- 
votion to your country when the dungeon and 
the gallows stared you in the face, end the loyal 
jieople will never desert your cause until justice 
i^ vindicated and the freedom bought by blood 
shall be permanently established in the Consti- 
tution. 

C. H. VAN WYCK, 
Tcm. Ch'u Union State Convention. 

The Secretary read the following address from 
the Wisconsin delegation: 

Continental Hotel, Philadelphia, ) 
Sept. 6, 186(3. S 
To the Hon. Ja.mes SpeeO, President of the South- 
ern Loyali.-its' Convention : 
I)ear Sir : The Wisconsin delegation, compf)sed 
of and representing men who aided in electing 
and Bupporting President Lincoln, and sustained 
the war for the su])|)ression of f lie Rebellion, and 
who now most cordially approve of the measures 
adopted by Congress for the restoration of tlie 



Union upon the solid, safe, and enduring haaxA 
of impartial justice to men of every origin, creed, 
and condition, desire to convey to the loyal and 
patriotic men of the South, now honorably re- 
presented in the Convention, over whose delib- 
erations you have the honor to preside, the as- 
surance of the respect, confidence, and sympathy 
of the patriotic masses of "Wisconsin, who ■vsill 
omit no opportunity to vindicate and further the 
holy cau.'^e of human freedom which has been so ' 
nobly maintained by their gallant and loyal ' 
brethren of the Southern States. Be assured 
that the State of Wisconsin will, in peace as in 
war, be found among the most devoted and faith- 
ful defenders of free institutions, the blessings of 
which should be guaranteed, beyond a peradven- 
ture, to all loyal citizens of this Republic of free- 
men. 

We have the honor to be, dear Sir, with great 
respect, your obedient servants, 

LUCIUS FAIRCIIILD, Chairman. 

CHARLES SEYMOUR, Secretary. 

Dr. R. 0. Sidney, of Mississippi, offered the 
following resolution : 

Resolved, That a Committee of five on finance 
be appointed, to make arrangements for meeting 
the contingent expenses of the Convention. 
Adopted. 

The Chairman then announced that the follow- 
ing named gentlemen had been appointed as the 
Committee on Finance : Messrs. Dr. R. 0. Sidney, 
Mississippi; John P. Camp, Missouri; Thomas 
Hornbrook, West Virginia ; Gail Borden, Texas; 
and R. T. Butler, Tennessee. 

Mr. Bingham, of Alabama, offered the follow- 
ing: 

Wliercas, It is alleged that the United States 
Treasury has been defrauded out of large sums 
of money, amounting to hundreds of millions of 
dollars, fcy agents appointed by the Secretary to 
collect Confederate cotton and abandoned prop- 
erty in the late rebel States and whereas, the 
proof can be made that the said Secretary was 
advised, on more occasions than one, that these 
frauds were being perpetrated upon this govern- 
ment ; therefore, 

Resolved, That Congress shoi'.ld, by joint com- 
mittee or otherwise, thoroughly investigate these 
frauds, and fi.x the responsibility where it be- 
longs, that the iieojile of the United States may 
know whcthw they haye proceeded from a dere- 
liction of oflicial duty in the head of the Treasurj' 
Departinent, or from the infidelity and di.-honesty 
of treasury cotton agents, selected in many cases 
fromoflicers in the rebel army and rebel citizens, 
to the exclusion of Union men. 

Governor P.oreman, of West Virginia. — Mr.) 
President, this Convention does not know posi- 
tivelj' anything about the facts in that preamble. 
I move its reference to the Committee on Reso- 
lutions 

The motion was agreed to, and the resolution 
referred. 



09 



Mr. Creswell, of Md., Chairman of the Com- 
mittee appoiuted to draft an address, announced 
that the Committee was ready to report, and 
read the following : 

Appeal of the Loyal Men of the South to their 
Fellow- Citizens of the United States. 
The representatives of 8,000,000 of American 
citizens appeal for protection and justice to their 
friends and brothers in the States that have been 
spared the cruelties ct the Rebellion and the di- 
rect horrors of civil war Here, on the spot 
where Freedom was proffered and pledged by 
the Fathers of the Republic, we implore your 
help against a reorganized oppression, whose 
sole object is to remit the control ot our destinies 
to the contrivers of the Rebellion after they have 
been vanquished in honorable battle ; thus at 
once to punish us for our devotion to our coun- 
try, and to intrench themselves in the ofBcial 
fortifications of the Government. 

Others have reJated the thrilling story of our 
wrongs from reading and observation. We come 
before you as imchallenged witnesses, and speak 
from personal knowledge our sad experience. If 
you fail us, we are more utterly deserted and 
betrayed than if the contest had been decided 
against us ; for, in that case even victorious 
Slavery would have found profit in the speedy 
pardon of those who had been among its bravest 
foes. Unexpected perfidy in the highest place in 
the Government, accidentally filled by one M'ho 
adds cruelty to ingratitude, and forgives the 
guilty as he proscribes the innocent, has stimu- 
lated the almost extinguished revenge of the 
beaten conspirators, and now the Rebels, who 
offered to yield everything to save their own 
lives, are seeking to consign us to bloody graves. 
Where we expected a benefactor, we find a per- 
secutor. 

Having lost our champion, we retm-n to. you 
who can make Presidents and punish traitors. 
Our last hope, under God, is in the unity and 
firmness of the States that elected Abraham 
Lincoln and defeated Jefi^erson Davis. The best 
statement of our case is the appalling yet un- 
conscious confession of Andrew Johnson, who, in 
savage hatred of his own record, proclaims his 
purpose to clothe four millions of traitors with 
the power to impoverish and degrade eight mil- 
lions of loyal men. 

Our wrongs bear alike on all races, and our 
tyrants, unchecked by you, will award the same 
fate to white and black. We can remain as we 
are only as inferiors and victims. We may fly 
from our homes, but we should fear to trust our 
fate with those who, after denouncing and defeat- 
ing treason, refuse to right those who have 
bravely assisted them in the good work. Till 
we are wholly rescued, there is neither peace 
for you, nor prosperity for us. 

We cannot better define at once our wrongs 
and our wants than by declaring that since 
Andrew Johnson affiliated with his early slan- 
derers and our constant enemies, his hand has 
been laid heavily upon every earnest loyalist in 



the South. History, the just judgment of the 
present, and the certain confirmation of the 
future, invite and command us to declare : 

That, after neglecting his own remedies for 
restoring the Union, he has resorted to the 
weapons of traitors to bruise and beat down 
patriots ; 

That, after declaring thai none but the loyal 
should govern the reconstructed South, he has 
practised upon the maxim that none but traitors 
shall rule ; 

That, while in the North he has removed con- 
scientious men from office, and filled many of the 
vacancies with the sjmipatjiizers of treason, in 
the South he has removed the proved and trust- 
ed patriot and selected the unqualified and con- 
victed traitor ; 

That, after brave men, who had fought for the 
old flag, have been nominated for positions, their 
names have been recalled, and avowed Rebels 
substituted ; 

That every original Unionist in the South, 
who stands fast to Andrew Johnson's covenants, 
from 1861 to 1865, has been ostracised ; 

That he has corrupted the local courts by 
offering premiums for the defiance of the laws 
of Congress, and by openly discouraging the 
observance of the oath against treason ; 

That, while refusing to punish one single con- 
spicuous traitor, though thousands had earned 
the penalty of death, more than a thousand of 
devoted Union citizens have been murdered in 
cold blood since the surrender of Lee, and in no 
case have their assassins been brought to judg- 
ment ; 

That he has pardoned some of the worst of the 
Rebel criminals North and South, including 
some who have taken human life imder circum- 
stances of unparalleled atrocity ; 

That, while denouncing and fettering the opera- 
tions of the Freedmen's Bureau, he, with a full 
knowledge of the falsehood, has charged that the 
black men are lazy and rebellious, and has con- 
cealed the fact that more whites than blacks have 
been protected and fed by that noble organiza- 
tion, and that while declaring that it was cor- 
ruptly managed and expensive to the Govern- 
ment, he has connived at a system of profligacy 
in the use of the public patronage and public 
money wholly without parallel, save when the 
traitors bankrupted the Treasury, and sought to 
disorganize and scatter the army and the money 
only to make it more easy to capture the Gov- 
ernment ; 

That, while declaring against the injustice of 
leaving eleven States unrepresented, he has re- 
fused to authorize the liberal plan of Congress, 
simply because it recognizes the loyal majority 
and refuses to perpetuate the traitor minority , 

That in every State south of Mason and Dixon's 
line his " policy " has wi'ought the most deplor- 
able consequences — social, moral, and political. 
It has emboldened returned Rebels to threaten 
civil war in Maryland, Missouri, West Virginia, 
and Tennessee, unless the patriots who saved 
and sealed these States to the old flas; surrender 



23 



before their arroqjftnt demands. It has corrnptod 
high State officials, elected by Union men and 
sworn to enforce the laws against returned 
Rebels, and made them the mere instruments of 
the author of the Rebellion. It has encouraged 
a new alienation between the sections, and by 
impeding emigration to the South, has erected a 
formidable barrier against free and friendly in- 
tercourse in the North and West. It has allow- 
ed the Rebel soldiery to per^:ecute the teachers of 
the colored schools, and to burn the churches in 
which the freedmen have worshipped the living 
God. That a system so barbarous should have 
culminated in the frightful riot at Jlemphis, and 
the still more appalling nmssacre at New Orleans, 
was as natural as that a bloody war should flow 
from the teachings of John C. Calhoun and Jef- 
ferson Davis. Andrew Johnson is responsible 
for all these unspeakable cruelties, and as he 
provoked so he justifies and applauds them. 
Sending his agents and emissaries into this re- 
fined and patriotic metropolis, to insist upon 
making his reckless policy a test upon a Christian 
people, he forgot that the protection extended to 
the 14th of August Convention in Philadelphia 
was not only denied to tiie free people of New 
Orleans on the 3i ith of July, when they assembled 
to discuss how best to protect themselves, but 
denied amid the slaughter of hundreds of inno- 
cent men. No page in the record ot his recent 
outrages upon human justice and cotistitutional 
law is more revolting than that which convicts 
him of refusing to arrest the preparations for 
that savage carnival, and not only of refusing 
to punish its author^, but of toiling to throw the 
guilty responsibility upon unoffending and inno- 
cent freedmen. The infatuated t}Tant that stood 
ready to crush his own people, in Tennessee, 
when they were struggling to maintain a Gov- 
ernment erected by himself, against his and 
other traitors' persecutions, was even more eai^er 
to illustrate his savage policy, by clothing with 
the most despotic power the rioters of New Or- 
leans. Notwithstanding this heartless desertion 
and cruel persecution by Andrew Johnson, the 
States of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Western 
Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, imbued with 
Deriincratic Republican principles — principles 
which the Fath.rs ot the Itepubiic deigned for 
all America — are now making determined battle 
with the enemies of free Constitutional Govern- 
ment, and, by tlie blessing of God, these States 
will soon range themselves in line with the 
former free States, and illustrate the wisdotn 
and beneficence of tlie great Charter of Amer- 
ican Liberty by their increa.-^ing population, 
Mi-alth, and prosperity in the remaining ten 
ites. The seeds of olig.irchy, plaiited in the 
iistitution by its slavery feature, have grown 
to be a monstrous power, whose recognition thus 
wrung from tha reluctant framers of that great 
instrument enabled thes3 States to entrench 
them>elve3 behinrl the perverted doctrine of 
States rights, and sheltered by a claim of Consti- 
tutional obligation t > maintain Slavery in t!i • 
States to present io tlic America:i < Jovernnn'iit 



the alternatives of oligarchy with slavery, or 
Democratic-Republican governments without 
slavery. A forbearing Government bowing to 
a supposed constitutional behest, acquiesced in 
the former alternative. The hand of the Gov- 
ernment was stayed for eighty years. The prin- 
ciples of constitutional liberty languished for 
want of Goverimient support. Oligarchy ma- 
tured its power with subtle design. Its history 
for eighty years is replete with unparalleled in- 
juries and usurpations; it developed only the 
agricultural localities, geographically distinct 
from the free-labor localities, and less than one- 
third of the whole, with African slaves. It had 
4,000,0(H» of human beings as chattels, yet made 
them the basis of unjust power for themselves in 
Federal and State (iovernments. To maintain 
their enslavement, it excluded millions of free 
white laborers from the richest agricultural 
lands of the world, forced them to remain in- 
active and unproductive on the mineral, manu- 
facturing, and lumber localities, comprising two- 
thirds of the whole South in square miles and 
real undeveloped wealth, simply because the 
localities were agriculturally too poor for slave 
labor, and condemned them to agriculture on 
this unagricultural territory, and consigned 
them to unwilling ignorance and poverty by 
denying capital and strangling enterprise. It 
repelled the cai)ital, energy, will, and skill of the 
Free States from the free-labor localities, by un- 
mitigated intolerance and proscription — thus 
guarding the approaches to their slave domain 
against democracy. Statute books groaned 
under despotic laws ag.ainst unlawful and insur- 
rectionary assemblies, aimed at the constitutional 
guaranties of the right to peaceably assemble 
and petition for a redress of grievances. It 
proscribed democratic literature as incendiary, 
nullified constitutional guaranties of freedom 
and free sp^ecli and a free press. It deprived 
citizens of the other States of their privileges 
and immunities in the States — an injury and 
usurpation alike unjust to Northern citizens and 
destructive of the best interests of the States 
themselves. Alarmed at the progi-ess of democ- 
racy in the face of every discouragement, at last 
it sought immunity by secession and war. The 
heart sickens witli cfintemplatioii of the four 
years that followed, forced loans, imjiressments, 
conscriptions with bloody hands and bayonets; 
the murder of aged Union men who had long 
laid aside the implements of labor, but iiad been 
summoned anew to the field by the conscription 
of their S(jns to sujiport their children and 
grandchildren, reduced from comfort to the 
verge of starvation ; the slaughter of n<il)le 
youths; types of physical manhood forced into 
an unholy war against those with whom they 
were identified by every interest; long months 
of incarceration in Rebel bastiles ; banishment 
from homes and hearthstones, arc but a partial 
recital of the long catalogue of horrors. Rut 
Democrats Nortli and South combined defeated 
them. Tliey lost. What <lid they lose? The 
cause of oliirarcliy '.' Tliey io-it .African Slavery 



24 



by name only. Soon as the tocsin of war ceased, 
soon as the clang of arms was hushed, they raise 
the cry of immediate admission, and with that 
watchword seek to organize imder new forms a 
contest to perpetuate their unbridled sway. 
They rehabilitate with their sweeping control of 
all local and State organizations. The Federal 
Executive, easily seduced, yields a willing obedi- 
ence to his old masters ; aided by his unscrupu- 
lous disregard of Constitution and laws, by his 
merciless proscription of true democratic opinion, 
and by all his appliances of despotic power, they 
now defiantly enter the lists in the loyal North, 
and seek to wring from freemen an indorsement 
of their wicked designs. Every foul agency is 
at work to accomplish this result. Falsely pro- 
fessing to assent to the abolition of slavery, they 
are contriving to continue its detestable power 
by legislative acts against pretended vagrants; 
they know that any form of servitude will an- 
swer their unholy purpose. They pronounce 
the four years' war a brilliant sword scene in 
the great revolutionary drama. Proscriptive 
public sentiment holds high carnival, and profit- 
ing by the exertions of the Presidential pilgrim, 
breathes out threatenings of slaughter against 
loyalty, ignores and denounces all legal restraints, 
and assails with the tongue of malignant slander 
the constitutionally chosen representatives of the 
people. To still the voice of Liberty, dangerous 
alone to tyrants, midnight conflagrations, as-a,-- 
sinatious, and murders in open day are called to 
their aid ; a reign of terror through all these ten 
States makes loyalty stand silent in the presence 
of treason, or v/hisper Avith bated breath. Strong 
men hesitate openly to speak for liberty, and de- 
cline to attend a Convention at Philadelphia for 
fear of destruction. But all Southern men are 
not yet awed into submission to treason, and we 
have assembled from all these States determined 
that liberty when endangered shall find a mouth- 
piece, and that the Government of the people, by 
the peo])le, for the people, shall not perish from 
the earth. Vie are here to consult together iiow 
best to provide for a union of truly Republican 
States, to seek to resume 36 stars to the old flag. 
AVe are here to see that 10 of these stars, opaque 
bodies paling their ineffectual fires beneath the 
gloom of darkness, of oligarcical tyranny and 
oppression. We wish them to be brilliant stars, 
emblems of constitutional liberty, glittering orbs 
sparkling with the life-giving principles of the 
model Republic, fitting ornaments of the glorious 
banner of freedom. Our last and only hope is in 
the unity and fortitude of the loyal people of 
America in the support and vindication of the 
XXXIXth Congress, and the election of a con- ! 
trolling Union majority in the succeeding or I 
XLth Congress. While the article amending | 
the National Constitution offers the most libei-al \ 
conditions to the authors of the Rebellion, and 
does not come up to the measure of our expecta- 
tions, we believe its ratification would be the 
commencement of a complete and lasting protec- 
tion to all our people ; and, therefore, we accept 
it as the best present remedy, and appeal to our 



brothers and friends in the North and the West 
to make it their watchword in the coming elec- 
tions. The tokens are auspicious of overwhelm- 
ing success. However little the verdict of the 
ballot-box may affect the reckless man in the 
Presidential chair, we cannot doubt that the 
traitors and sympathizers will recognize that 
verdict as the surest indication Ihat the mighty 
j^ower which crushed the Rebellion is still alive, 
and that those who attempt to oppose or defy it 
will do so at the risk of their own destruction. 
Our confidence in the overruling providence of 
God prompts the prediction and intensifies the 
belief that when this warning is sufficiently 
taught to these misguided and reckless men, the 
liberated millions of the rebellious South will 
be proffered those rights and franchises which 
maybe necessary to adjust and settle this mighty 
controversy in the spirit of the most enlarged 
and Christian philanthropy. 

GEORGE AV. PASCHAL, of Texas, 

Chairman. 

R. 0. SIDNEY, of Mississippi. 

JOHN H. ATKINSON, of West Virginia- 

JOHX A. ALLDERDICE, of Delaware. 

A. W. HAWKINS, of Tennessee. 

SAMUEL KNOX, of Missouri. 

WRIGHT R. FISH, of Louisian.r 

MILTON J SAFFOLD, of Alabama. 

PHILIP WAZE. of Florida. 

I). R. GOODLOE, of North Carolina. 

D. C. FORNEY, of District of Columbia. 

JOHN A. J CRESWELL, of Maryland. 

G. W. ASHBURN, of Georgia. 

J. Minor Botts (Va.) — Mr. President: I rise 
to say that the address just read receives ray 
most cordial approval. There is but a single 
line to which, in my opinion, any objection can 
be taken. To leave it out will not impair the 
force of the address, while its appearance in it, 
I think, Avill be liable to misinterpretation. I 
regard it as the most grave indictment that has 
ever been brought by any grand jury in the 
country, and its severity consists in its truth. I 
have simply risen for the purpose of moving its 
unanimous adoption by this Convention. In 
doing so, however, I desire to point out the lino 
by which I make objection, and which, I think, 
should be omitted. It is this, " That tlie South.- 
ern (States have proscribed Democratic literature 
as incendiary," while, in my opinion, Democratic 
literature, on the contrary, is the only literatur& 
they have tolerated. I hope there will be no 
objection made by any member of the Conven- 
tion to leaving that single line out, and then 
adopting the balance of the .address. 

The Hon. A. J. Hamilton (Texas).— Mr. Pres- 
ident, the Committee on Resolutions beg leave 
to make a report. 

The President. — There is a motion pending. 

Mr. Tucker, of Virginia. — Mr. President : I 
rise to move that the action of thi? Convention 
on the adoption of this address be postponed 
until to-morrow morning. [Cries of " No " 



25 



" No," " Xo."] In tlie mean time, I move that 
it be priiitod, so that I can have an npportunit}' 
to study it, as the gentloiiian lias had who rose 
and stated tliat there was but a single line in it 
to which he objected. No man or set of men 
can act iuteUi^ently upon a document of that 
kind, which is to go forth to the public of this 
country, without having examined it. and I will 
not commit myself to any such paper under sucli 
circumstances. I do not choose to be led here 
bj' cheers or anything el.se. I do not come up 
here to be treated as were the men who came 
here from certain States a few days ago. Mr. 
President : We did not come up here solely to 
inform the country and the world that Andrew 
Johnson is a traitor and usurper — the world 
knew it. We have something else that we want 
to say to the country and the world, and I want 
an ojiportunity as well as the gentleman from 
Virginia [Jlr. Botts], who had a chance to 
examine the document, before I vote upon it. | 

Address proposed by the delegates from the ' 
I'nrecon-tructed States as a substitute for the i 
one reported by the Committee. | 

Mr. Sherwood (Texas). — I rise. Sir, for the [ 
purpose of commending every sentiment that | 
has been i)ut f jrth in this address of the Com- J 
mittee. IN'o man in this Convention can express < 
a higher estimate of the merits of that address ! 
than myself. I have considered everj' word of 
it so far as it has gone. There is one assump- 
tion put forth in that report which I now wisli 
to bring to the attention of this Convention. It 
is this: that there are 8,000.000 of men in the j 
South who are loj-al. I ask the Convention to 
note that statement. I agree with tlie address, | 
but I go further. If you extend protection over 
the people of the South, there will bo 10,000,000 j 
out of the 12,000,000 who m-e loyal [applause] — 
loyal to the Constitution of the United States. 
While it is assurneJ i:i tlii^ address that there j 
are 8,0.»0,000 out of the 12,0ii0,00i> in the South ' 
who arj loyal, who have all the natural motives 
to be loyal, and who have come up here to ex- ! 
press their loyalty, I hope that they will not be j 
shackled by their condition, either of color or 
caste. [Applause.] Now, Mr. President, while 
I indorse every sentiment of that address, I \ 
rise for the purpose of offering a substitute, not ; 
that I di.sagree with an\thing in it, but becau? ■ 
it i.^ like the Hibernian blanket, of most excel- ' 
lent quality, but a little too .short at both ends. 
I will now proceed to read ivhat I offer as a sub- 
stitute for that most excellent address, and sug- 
gest tiiat tlie aildress which hasbeyn read should 
bo printed and circulated through the hind. 
With the exception I have stated, I have no 
earthly objection to it otherwise th.in that it 
does not cover tlie whole case. fAppliuir. 
Cries of "(lo on the stand." " Read it from tin' 
stand."] 

Mr. Sherwood then ti .k the -tand and rea 1 .i 
long address, setting firth the wants and right-' 
of the people of the'Cotton States. 



■ TffF COXVENTION' OF SOUTHERN 
i UNIONISTS TiJ THE PEOPLE OF THE 
\ UNITED STATES: 

i The Unionists of the South, in presenting a 
Platform, have endeavored to avoid all things 
that might excite cavil, or affect the sensibilities 
of any lover of Free Government. We stand on 
the constitutional rights of the citizen ; those 
rights specilied and enumerated in the great 
charter of American Liberty, in the following 

form — 

».» 

" St'curitij to lAje, Pirson, and Properti). Free- 
ihnn of the Presf: ; Freedom of Opinion ; and 
Freedom in the Excrnne of Religion. Fair ami 
impartial Trial bi/ Jurt/ under such rajulations a^i 
to make the administratl'm of justirc complete. 
Unobstructed commerce between the Slates, and the 
right ■ of the cifizeyis of each State to pasH into and 
xojourn in any other State, and lo enjoy the itnmv.- 
nities awl privileges of the citizens of such other 
Slate. Exemption from any order of nobility or 
gove^-nment through privileged class : Tlie guar- 
anty of Republican Oorernment to every State and 
to all the People thereof, making the preservation, 
and maintenance of the above enumerated rights, 
unless forfeited by crime, the constitutional test 
and definition of what is Republican Government. 

These natural, cardinal; fundamental rights of 
the citizen were established in political form by 
the Constitution of the United States. Their 
preservation was declared by our Fathers, to be 
" the paramount object in the institution of Govern- 
ment ; " with the further declaration, that " vjheri 
government becomes subversive of these rights, it i ,- 
(he duty of the people to alter or modify such gov. 
ernmcnt." The practical vindication of these 
rights, personal and political, has become the 
Platform of the Unionists of the Souih. We can- 
not mistake, in our assumption, that their pre>f- 
ervation in the broadest and most liberal sense, 
is the only practical basis on which national 
dissensions can possibly be healed, or permanent 
peace established. 

In some of the States these rights have been 
substantially, even liberally maintained. In 
others they have been but partially preserved. 
In proportion as they have been justly regarded 
in the respective States, have the iVople re- 
miined socially and politically contented ; in- 
vited population; achieved material prosper- 
ity; accumulated wealth; and advanced the 
cause of education and popular intelligence. 
In such proportion as they have been trans- 
gressed, jxditical and social discontent have 
prevailed ; population repelled ; enterprise 
paralyzed; material prosperity retarded; the 
cause of popular eilucation and intelligence im- 
peded, and the condition of the musses ileirraded. 
In proportion as the people of the different 
States have looked at their government fram'-- 
work through the medium of these riirht.s, with 
an eye careful to their ]ireserv!rtion, have they 
manifested attachment to Ui'publican govern 
raent ; taken jiride in the iil -a of a great nation- 
ality; been appreciative of t!ie wisiloui of th'ir 



26 



"Fathers, and firm in maintaining what their 
Fathers established. In such degree as the peo- 
ple of the respective States have failed to com- 
prehend the true theory of government, based on 
the preservation of these rights, have they mani- 
fested political perversity ; abjured the Repub- 
lican principle ; became seditious ; and as a se- 
quence of such degeneracy, inflicted distresses on 
the nation through political crime to which history 
scarcely affords a parallel. It is under this con- 
dition of the antagonistic forces of the Union, 
still continuing, that the Unionists of the South, 
WHITE AND BLACK, in the struggle for political ex- 
istence in connection with the preservation of 
these rights, now take the appeal to the power 
of the nation against local despotism. 

DECLARATION OF "WAR AGAINST REREL IDEAS. 

Against the political ideas of the rebellion, we 
declare unceasing war. It needs only an epitome 
of the secession program, as advocated in the 
political literature and journals of the rebels 
during the war, to exhibit its full-blown atrocity. 
It was assumed by the rebellion during the war, 
that " democracy, in itn philosophic sense, was in- 
compatible with slavery and the whole system of 
Southern society : " that " R'publican government 
was a failure : " that " the real civilization of a 
co\mtry was in its aristocracy, which should be made 
permanent by laws of entail and primogeniture : " 
that " a government of majorities must be abro- 
gated : " that " they should seek at once to eradicate 
every vestige of radical democracy, every feature \ 
tending to make the government of the Confederacy I 
a popular government : " that " an hereditary sen- \ 
■ate and executive were the political form best suited 
to the genius, and most expressive of the political 
ideas of the South : " and finally, that " they had 
no objections to royalty when restrained by constitu- 
tional barriers.'^ 

These political ideas, destructive of all repub- 
lican government, in connection with the scheme 
of making Slavery perpetual, foi-med the animus 
of the rebellion. The declaration that " Democ- 
racy, in its philosophic sense, was incompatible 
with Slavery," afl:brds the clue to the whole line 
of argument and reasoning upon which the rebel- 
lion was raised up. The apostacy of Alexander 
II. Stevens, in passing from the principles of the 
Constitution to the " corner-stone" policy of the 
traitors, is an exact illustration of the other lead- 
ing conspirators. They all alike, mentally, con- 
sciously, and wickedly, passed through this course 
of apo:-tacy from republican principle. There was 
one reason, and one alone, that led to the apos- 
tacy : that was, the Constitution and its benefi- 
cent principles stood in the way of Slavery per- 
petuation. In comparison with this, the Consti- 
tution was nothing ; protective Republican 
Government nothing ; the common political rights 
of the bulk of the People nothing ; for nothing 
was intended to be acknowledged or tolerated 
by the conspirators, as political right, that was 
not made subordinate to the interests of Slavery. 
The doctrine of " state sovereignty " and its ex- 
travagant postidatcs w"as raised uj") as an avail- 



able pretext, and hypocritically put forth as the 
base-line in the workings and plottings of incipient 
treason. No class understood better the protec- 
tive character and features of the Constitution 
than the intelligent leaders of secession. They 
studied it continually. They discussed it in 
season and out of season : but, they discussed it 
always in connection with their plottings and 
contrivances to pervert and overthrow it. No 
class knew better that there was, and could be, 
no legitimate State sovereignty in opposition to, 
or in conflict with the Constitution. No class 
knew better, when hypocritically urging their 
theory of " State rights" that every conceivable 
personal and political right, compatible with re- 
publican government, had been provided for 
and established by this supreme law ; and, that 
no State right could have existence that did not 
harmonize with the instrument. Neither treason, 
nor the palliators of treason will be allowed to 
stultify the understanding of the leading traitors, 
by finding excuses for them in their hypocritical 
subterfuge, " State rights," which they merely 
converted into a lever to work the plans of re- 
bellion. It is essential to the welfare of the na- 
tion that the exact motives for the attempt at 
revolution should be stamped on the history of 
the war. If republican ideas and constitutional 
liberty prevail, treason cannot fail to be made 
odious through the motives that led to the 
attempt of revolution. Through thirty years of 
diligent hypocrisy they worked to mislead and 
debauch the political mind of the South ; to 
cajole and terrorize it into the plans of rebellion ; 
and to train it to the purpose of repudiating re- 
publican government in order to make Slavery 
the " corner stone " of Southern institutions. 

FORCE AND HYPOCRISY USED TO EFFECT 

SECESSION. 
When this triple conspiracy against the 
Constitution, against the nationality, and against 
the political rights of Southern masses, had 
matured its preparations, the leaders entered on 
the execution of the plan for carrying the 
States oat of the Union — not by any calm and 
dispassionate appeal to the people on the ground 
of rights invaded, for no rights had been 
invaded. The ultimate plan of secession was 
connected with incipient military organization. 
The active treason carefully secured in advance 
the arms and munitions in each of the States, 
and placed them in the hands and under the 
control of such only as would wield them on 
the side of rebellion. The States were carried 
out through force and violence. Nothwithstand- 
ing the seeming acquiescence of the majority, it 
was an acquiescence arising from tlie condition 
of unarmed helplessness. In addition to force, 
every deceptive calculation was paraded before 
the public to show the strength of rebellion. 
It was confidently stated that negotiations had 
been matured whereby it was made certain that 
England and France would intervene in favor of 
the South in caso it was necessary to secure its 
independence. It was urged that the leaders of 



27 



the Democratic party North had bargained with 
the leaders in the South for peaceable secession ; 
that they had given the pledge that no coercive 
measures of the general government would be 
allowed. It was stated and believed that there 
were sixty thousand men in New York who 
would take the side of the South and prevent 
the passage of New Eugland troops across the 
Hudson. Nothing was left undone to underrate 
the power of the general government, or to 
make it appear contemptible on account of the 
alleged pusillanimity of its supporters. The 
belief was widely inculcated that the independ- 
ence of the Soutli was certain. Under this 
belief, a majorit}- of the Southern people gave in 
their adhesion to the new government. As is 
natural for all people, the greater portion sought 
protection under wliat they fallaciouslj- supposed 
to be the side of power. The delusion was kept up 
by contumacy in the North. The traitors, 
measuring the political moralitj' of their fiiends 
in the North by their owti standard, actually' 
believed, and propagated the belief throughout 
the South, that the 5'ortli would divide and fight 
the general government instead of the rebellion. 
It was thus the rebellion was commenced and 
the war protracted. Ultimately, the people of 
the South were fearfully taught the truth, and 
undeceived as to the power of the contending 
forces. In time they will become fully advised 
as to the nature of the conflict. A rebellion 
|that originated on false pretences and lived for 
ia time on its hypocrisy will be analj'zed by 
Southern people when civil liberty is established, 
and they are made to comprehend the conspiracy 
against their rights. This is what the conspirators 
are afraid of. Most of all things they dread to 
face the Southern masses on the accusation of 
intent to overthrow republican government. 
This would make treason odious, for they would 
stand responsible, with no palliating excuse, for 
all the evils and bloodshed of the war. 

STRENGTH OF KEPUBLICAN GOVERXMENT. 

The strength of republican government has 
thus far been vindicated. Tiie rebel apostacy 
and warfare in the South, encouraged by the 
apologists of treason in the North, and assisted 
by the advocates of government through a 
privileged class in Europe, have not shaken it, 
nor have they shaken the confidence of its true 
supporters. It lias withstood a shock that 
would have overturned the strongest dynast v in 
Europe. It lias resisted tlie whole comliinalion 
of anti-republican influence, domesticand foreign. 
The assault u|)on it has been attended with a 
rebound that tore the manacles from four million 
people, who, but yesterday, were slaves. The 
attack made in the interest of Slavery has 
changed, and tri^n^^form<•d Slavery into citizen- 
slii[». Thus far it has lritiin|)licd. ' The question 
^s now before xm whether it can go steadily on 
^nd consumniate the great plan of fr< e proto'live 
government, whereby everv human being within 
its jurisdiction shall" be jAaced on tho platform 
of equal rights, before the law. As a sequence 



of the rebellion, we are to deal with political 
questions under the political powers of the 
Government — powers which were provided to 
meet emergencies of the character now existing. 
These powers, extraordinary and extreme in 
their character, have hitherto lain dormant for 
the reason that no exigency had arisen to call 
tlifin into requisition. Tlu'\^ are what Mr. 
Madison characterized as " a harmless superfluity 
in the Constitution in case they should not bo 
needed ; " or, in other words, would remain 
dormant in case rebellion and conspiracy did not 
call them into exercise. 

STATUS OF THE SECEDED STATES XSV 
CONSPIUATOKS. 
What is now the political condition or siahes of 
the seceded States; and, where is the power 
lodged to deal with them V These are questions 
of vital interest, present and future, to the 
M'hole Union. Eleven States, as States, in 
political form severed themselves from all con- 
nection with the Constitution. They established 
State government, in form, in opposition to it. 
They formed a confederacy, so called, instituted 
a confederate government, dr fado, with admin- 
istrative, legislative, and judicial departments. 
They organized an army and navy, instituted 
prize courts, made cafstures, condemnations, and 
were acknowledged bj- foreign powers as 
legitimate belligerents. AVhat is of most im- 
portance in dealing with the leading conspirators, 
are the facts, that they voluntarily abjured the 
Constitution and the Union government, re- 
nounced their allegiance, declared themselves 
alien to it, and swore allegiance to a government 
at war with the United states. This was the 
attitude of the seceded States and the conspirators 
when the result of arms decided a four years' 
conflict, leaving the confederate and rebel State 
governments aUke demolished, and the people of 
those States without any civil government 
whatsoever. 

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS TO MEET 
E.MERGENCIES. 
It would have been strange indeed if the 
penetrative foresight of the framers of the 
L'onstitution h;d failed to provide the power to 
deal with emergencies of this character. Fortu- 
natel}', we are not left to eke out a power by 
inference or imj)lication. We can go directly to 
the lodgment of this power as prescribed by i\w 
Supreme Law. It matters not from what cause- 
or causes the State governmenis had bee;i 
broken down. It is sufheient that none existed, 
and that the States stood in a territorial condition, 
or aometliing lower still, having no government 
but militiiry rule. The power to re-institute 
Slate governments in these cases is lodged 
s])Ocifically and ex(rlusively in Congress. The 
( onstitution provides tliat"tlio I'nited State-- 
^-liall guarantee a reiJubliean form of government 
to every State in the Union. To Congress is 
confided the power to make all laws necesaary 



28 



and proper to carry into execution this, as well 
as all other provisions of the Constitution ; with 
the further provision, that the Constitution and 
laws made in pursuance thereof shall be the 
supreme law of the land, and the judges in 
every State bound thereby, anything in the 
constitution or laws of any State to the contrary 
notwithstanding." 

This provision, guaranteeing republican gov- 
ernment, has grown, under our emergencies, to 
be one of its most important requirements. It 
indicates the wisdom and foresight of the 
framers in guarding against events or contin- 
gencies of a destructive nature. Mr. Madison, 
in commenting on this provision, says: 

" In a confederacy, foimded on republican 
principles, and composed of republican mem- 
bers, the superintending government ought 
clearly to possess the authority to defend the 
system against aristocratic or monarchial 
innovations. But, a right implies a remedy, 
and where else could tlie remedy be deposited 
than where the Constitution has placed it? 
It may possibly be asked what need there 
could be for such a provision, and whether it 
may not become a pretext for alterations in 
the State governments without the concurrence 
of the States themselves. These questions 
admit of ready answers. If the interposition 
of the general Government should not be 
needed, the provisions for such an event would 
be a harmless superfluity only in the Constitu- 
tion. But who can sa}' what experiments may 
be produced by the caprice of particular 
States, by the ambition of enterprising leaders, 
or by the intrigues and influence of foreign 
powers?" 

Had the framers of the Constitution distinctly 
foreseen what has happened in the last six years 
as to "the caprice of particular States, the 
ambition of enterprising leaders, or the intrigues 
and influence of foreign powers," they could not 
have provided the power to deal with them 
more distinctly than they have done. The 
lodgment of this power in Congress was as wise 
as i"t is now known to have been necessarj- ; for 
where else, as Mr. Madison puts the inquiry, 
could it have been deposited? The President 
assumes that this power is in him. We pronounce 
this assumption an unqualified, if not an inex- 
cusable usurpation:— contrary to the plain 
provisions of the Constitution ; contrary to the 
cotemporaneous views of those who framed it; 
and contrary to all tlie prudential policy that 
runs through the governmental framework of 
our whole republican system. 

The declaration by 'the President that "the 
Constitution had been rolled up and deposited in a 
j>igeon hole during the four years' war" was a 
most pernicious mistake. It was the rebel 
construction only that had been laid away. Treason 
and its apologists have throughout contended 
that "the general Government had no right to 
coei-ce a State." Under their doctrine of State 
rights and State sovereignty, insurrection and 



rebellion was but another name for impunity. 
The assumption that tlie war power embraced 
in the Constitution could be wielded against 
foreign powers only, and not against domestic 
enemies, would but'ill accord with the ideas of 
the Fathers who supposed they had provided 
for " defending their system of republican gov- 
ernment" against all enemies, foreign and 
domestic. 'Ihe defenders of the Union who 
stood by the country and Government in their 
peril, will be slow to acknowledge, as true, the 
Executive imputation that the defence of the 
country and Government was not in accordance 
with the Constitution. ^ 

EMANCIPATION A POLITICAL AS WELL AS A 
MILITARY NECESSITY. 

When the leaders of the rebellion made the 
declaration that " democracj^, in its philosophic 
sense, vvas incompatible with Slavery," and the 
further declaration, in effect, that in order to 
perpetuate Slavery, it had become a political 
neceGsity to abrogate democratic or republican 
governmenc in the South, the jjeneral Government 
was obliged to accept the issue. The unabridged 
and unbridled power of intolerant Slavery on 
the one hand, or pi^otective republican govern- 
ment to be maintained on the other, formed the 
issue. The contending parties understood pre- 
cisely alike what the issue was; what the 
opposing principles contended for ; and conscious 
alike that one or the other must go under. The 
political ideas in which the rebellion originated, 
and the destructive war it commenced have not 
only vindicated the just policy of emancipation, 
but have proved and established its political, as 
as well as its military necessity. 

EMANCIPATION ALSO AN INDUSTKIAL 
NECESSITY. 
In addition to the military and political 
necessity for emancipation, imposed by the 
rebellion, there was an industrial necessity of 
equal importance. In the opinion of this 
Convention the material interests of the South 
will be as much benefited by emancipation a* 
the cause of republican liberty. For long years 
Southern surpluses have been invested in slavc'^. 
This added nothing to their capacity as a pro- 
ducing force, while it virtually robbed all other 
enterprises of capital with which to raise up 
diversified industries. It left a large portion of 
the population without profitable employment. 
Tlie consequence has been deficiency in Southern 
production. The labor-saving inventions con- 
nected with mechanical industry whereby 
production in other sections has been multiplied 
in manifold degree, have been introduced in the 
South to but limited extent. The comparision 
between States, before the war, illustrates the 
disparity of production between those having, 
or not having sj-stems of diversified industry. 
From the report of the Secretary of the 
Treasury on the finances for ISuO-Y, the average 



29 



|;65 

S. (.'ai-olina. ... 66 

N. Carolina. . . 49 

Alabiiina 66 

Virgiuin 69 

Florkla 55 

Georgia 61 

Arkansas 62 



per capita product to each inhabitant of the 

respective States mentioned stood thus : 

Massachusetts $166 Louisiania 

Rhode Island 164 

New Jersey 120 

Connecticut 166 

New York 112 

Vermont ^'' 

Pennsylvania 99 

New Hampshire . . 117 

The above comparison is drawn between 

States that have nearly equal advantages in 

marketing their productions. The statement 

Includes the productions arising from agn- 
'ulturc mining and manufactures, without 
Vicludiiig the gains of trade and commerce, 
rt'ere these added, the disparity would be much 
ncreased. There has been a cause, other than 
ihe absorption of Southern surpluses in slave 
.Topertv, that has jtrevented the growth of 
> _5 "i^.^! ;T,ri.,^f^-rT in tlif> Sniilh. To sustain 



(Mechanical industry in the South. To sustain 
Blavery it was thought necessary to strike 
down the principle of civil lil>erty. Had it not 
been for this, capital and skilled labor might have 
gone in from other States and countries ; but, 
have been repelled for the sole reason that they | 
would not fjo, and never tcill f/o where public 
opinion is intolerant, or regulated by threatenings 
and violence. The South has been depressed in 
production under a false system of political 
economv, and an equally destructive spirit of 
intolerance. Should the future of the South be 
divested of both these evWs, the increase in 
population, capital and production would be 
astonishing. We anticipate the time when the 
South will find its remedy in a just and liberal 
policy, the basis for which has been laid by 
emancipation. Viewing things in this light, the 
Convention tenders its congratulations to the 
people of the Union, and more especially to the 
people of the South, that Slavery is irredeemably 
destroyed. We only regret that the intolerant 
spirit engendered "by it has not also passed 
away. | 

RESPONSIBrLITY AND EMB.\RTl.VS3MENT 

THROWN UPON CONQKESa. 
The close of the war has thrown upon the 
general government a manifold degree of resp(jn- j 
sibility, and owing to the course of the Execu- 
tive, a'manifold degree of embarrassment. With 
a class of the rebels and the.r followers, enragel 
at the destruction of Slavery, and disappointed 
in their schemes to destoy the Union, their re- 
sentment knows no bounds. Defeat has abated 
nothing of the violence or spirit of assassination 
that has grown up under the execrable practices 
of the coercionists. The white Unionists are the 
especial objects of their hatrcl and malice. Tli • 
freedinen are still looked upon as the properly 
of former masters, that by sone possible change 
of political power may again bo reduced to sei-- 
vitnde. Threatenings and violence are still the 
i.rder of the day; still employed to suppress the 
Union sentimcut ; and are made nearly as effectual 



in most places in exciting the fears of the well 
disposed as during the war, or the reign of ter- 
ror that imniediately preceded it. Evidence is 
brought from all iiarts of the South that violence 
is on the increase, coupled with the determina- 
tion that no party shall be formed to act in con- 
cert with the majority in Congress, or with the 
party that elected it. ' This is i)recisely the char- 
acter of the so-called " eonservalve LTuionhm" 
that has been reanimated into murderous activity 
by the encouragement given through the Tresi- 
dent and his policy. 

Aside from this reckless class, brutalized in 
ruffianism by lone habit, the bulk of the [jcople, 
if placed on the side of power, with the Presi- 
dent and Congress acting in concert, would most 
willingly join in producing order and enforcing 
protection. It is painful to know that this can- 
not be accomplished until such time as the exec- 
utive shall see fit to act in conjunction with the 
Law-making power, for it is useless to pass laws 
when the executive stands between those laws 
and their faithful execution. The condition of 
the South is peculiar. With rebel animosities 
of long standing, and hatred that knows no 
bounds toward Union men, it is easy for the 
most common mind to see and know that nothing 
but governmental power, firmly exercised, can 
give protection. It is most unfortunate that the 
outspoken men of the South who stood by the 
! o-overnment during the war, has fallen into dis- 
1 repute with the President. He regards them as 
Southern radicals. They are so. They never 
1 thought well of the political ideas of the rebels ; 
1 nor do they discover any material improvement 
in them yet. The President, on many occasions, 
has characterized the Unionists of the South as a 
contumacious element, bent on sowing sedition, 
but what seems most objectionable with the 
President they are disposed to affiliate with the ma- 
jority in Congress and the Union party, and more 
especially to stand by the constitutional rights 
of the citizen in opposition to the President's 
Policy, which they regard as an unmistakable 
usurpation, as mischievous in effect as it is ob- 
noxious in legality. 



COSFLICTIXG CL.\I-MS OF POWEU EY CO.N- 
GRE8S AND THE EXECUTIVE. 
The present Congress and the Executive were 
elected by the great party that has toiled to pre- 
serve the Government, the Constitution, and the 
Union. The one was elected as the Law-making 
power, the tribunal of States, that has confided 
to it the power to declare war ; to put armies into 
the field; /" direct the purpoxea and o'nectsfor 
which thri/ shall he cm/ilo>/ed ; to disbaiuUiiein at 
pleasure; to conclude peace; to cstabli.sh citi- 
zenship and give it protection, and to inake all 
laws " necrsnari/ and proper" to carry into exe- 
cution everv provision of the Constitution. The 
I other was elected, as the Constitution provides, 
to carry into execution the laws and regulations 
' prescribed by Congress. These departments of 
' the Government are entirely distinct. To oiic 



30 



is committed the entire political, or Law-making 
power. The other has no political power what- 
soever, excepting a qualified negative through 
the veto. When it is considered that the welfare 
of ten States, the Constitutional rights of citi- 
zenship, and the Constitutional principles upon 
which the government is to be administered, 
hang in the balance between these conflicting 
claims of power, there are reasons, higher than 
partyism, why statesmen should be deliberate 
and prudent. 

The Executive cannot trench on the power of 
Congress, or take any persistent step to divest 
that body of its legitimate prerogatives, without 
both a violation of the Constitution and his 
official oath : nor does the Constitution leave 
Congress with a bare negative protest in defend- 
ing its claims to power. To that body is con- 
fided the high power of impeachment in cases of 
official dereliction, usurpation, or corruption. 
Congress cannot allow another department of the 
government to usurp its powers without a viola- 
tion of its official oath ; for it stands as the tribu- 
nal, armed with the power of impeachment, to 
restrain and constrain all other departments to 
act within the limitation of their respective 
spheres. Congress creates, modifies, and re- 
creates in the forms of law duties for both the 
executive and judicial departments, and, as the 
Constitution provides, these laws are binding on 
the respective " departments, and every officer 
thereof" There is no shadow of imperialism in 
connection with our governmental framework. 
The Constitution and laws passed in pursuance 
are the supreme authority, and the President's 
vocation is to see that they are faithfully exe- 
cuted. 

"We admit the right of expatriation. The 
leaders of the rebellion, according to the rules 
and usuages of all nations, placed themselves in 
the category of alien enemies by abjuring alle- 
giance to the United States, and swearing alle- 
giance to a government at war with our own. It 
was, and still is a question for the Law-making 
or political power, having in charge the " gen- 
eral welfare," to treat them as it sees fit ; to hold 
them, if " proper and necessary," to the position 
they assumed ; as aliens, to be deprived of all 
political rights ; as traitors, to be judicially pun- 
ished; or, as rebels, with alien disabilities, to be 
tolerated or not according to good or bad be- 
havior. They started as traitors, progressed 
to the position of alien enemies in form, and 
placed themselves by their crimes and abjura- 
tion in a condition to be dealt with by the politi- 
cal power precisely as the political power should 
elect. The political power has not yet made its 
election, and it is as incompetent for the Execu- 
tive to forestall the power of Congress by special 
pardon, as it would be to restore them to the 
rights of citizenship, should Congress elect to 
place them under the ban of political disability. 
The power of the " superintending government 
to defend the system," as Mr. Madison describes 
it, is not to be measured by comity to traitors 
adorned with the additional character of alien 



or public enemies ; but it is to be measured by 
such necessity alone as secnres the peace of the 
country by securing the rights of citizenship to 
all such as have not forfeited their rights by 
crime. On political questions within the juris- 
diction of the political authority, the political 
authority is exclusive. The executive and judi- 
cial must follow, and cannot precede it. " None 
but the Law-making power can trench on legis- 
lative ground." 

" The superintending government," in carry- 
ing out the requirement guaranteeing republican 
government, wields a power that may be both 
military and political. The Constitution deals 
with States as States, or with States in a ter- 
ritorial condition ; and it matters not what they 
are called when the government has been usurp- 
ed, perverted into an engine to crush the rights 
of the citizen, or where it has been entirely de- 
molished. The constitutional right of the polit- 
ical power to interfere commences with its ne- 
cessity. It holds the military power subordinate, 
and directs when and against whom it shall be 
employed ; can command its assistance to repel 
usurpation, to overcome armed treason, or sub- 
jugate public enemies. The law of force ceases 
with military necessity; but the political power, 
which holds the military subordinate, must de- 
termine when such necessity has ceased. 

In re-establishing the political relations of a 
State government where it has been usurped, 
perverted, or demolished, the superintending 
government must exercise a power purely polit- 
ical. Its power must be exercised in accordance 
with the Constitution, with nothing in the instru- 
ment omitted or overstrained. Such political 
power superintends, or directs as it pleases, 
according to necessity, the whole political organ- 
ization of the State. The enabling act may be 
as imperative as Congress chooses to make it for 
the purpose of compelling conformity to the 
Constitution. The recognition of the State gov- 
ernment, when formed, must be submitted to 
Congress for determination as to whether it is 
in conformity with the Constitution ; or, in other 
words, whether it is republican government 
within the constitutional test and definition of 
what is republican government. From what 
source the President derives his power to take 
the initiative, or to direct the incidents and 
process of re-establishing State governments in 
the seceded States, is not perceived by this Con- 
vention. As commander-in-chief of the army 
and navy it cannot exist, for as such he is sub 
ordinate to the political power. As executive 
chief magistrate he is equally void of such power. 
"Were there no political questions to be deter- 
mined as to the status of rebels or freedmen, or 
any questions growing out of the altered relations 
between the classes ; nor any questions as to the 
expediency of allowing white rebels to determine 
the rights of colored Unionists, or manner 
and degree of protection, it would still make no 
difference. The political disability of the Pres- 
ident would be the same, for he has no authority 
in any aspect of the case. It is needless to say 



31 



he could not dclegfate to provisional governors a 
power which neither the Constitution nor laws 
of Congress had confided to him. The issue 
between the President and Congress brings up 
the question whether the President, in taking an 
unauthorized initiative, and also whether, in jiress- 
ing the recognition of these States in defiance of 
Congress, he is not committing an impeachable 
usurpation. It is not pretended by the President 
or his supporters that in the political organiza- 
tion of Southern State government he is acting 
under any other than military power as com- 
mander-in-chief of the army and navy. 

THE MILITARY POWER MADE SUBORDINATE TO 
THE POLITICAL. 
There was no subject matter that so much 
exercised the apprehensions of the framers of tlie 
Constitution as the combination of the executive 
and military power in the same person. No 
subject was so much debated or canvassed with 
such careful deliberation. While it was con- 
ceded that the President in executing the laws 
should have the assistance of the military to 
force their execution, there was a grave distrust 
as to the safety of combining the executive with 
the military power as commander-in-chief of the 
army and navy. The framers looked back 
through history, and traced the numberless 
cases of imperialism built up from this starting- 
point of i)owcr. Rome as a republic would not 
intrust the combination of executive and mili- 
tary power in the same ])crson, and therefore 
duplicated the consuls. Could the framers of 
the Constitution have foreseen the events of but 
a few years, they would have seen Napoleon the 
First artfully corrujiting his favorite generals, 
and after gaining them over, using them to assist 
ia subver;ing the political jjower of France that 
he might rise to imperialism on its ruins. The 
usuqiation of Iturbide in Mexico, and the coup 
d'etat of Louis Napoleon, are but simple verifica- 
tions of the necessity of binding tliis combina- 
tion of executive and military j)ower under tlie 
most inexorable restraint. The framers of the 
Constitution adopted the remedy of making it 
entirely subordinate to the political power, and 
also subordinate to the judicial power, except in 
cases of great emergencj-. They did not stop 
there. They armed the ijolitical power with the 
power of impeachment to protect against this 
acknowledged danger of usurpation. When the 
people neglect to sustain Congress in the main- 
tenance of its political prerogatives as against 
executive encroachment, the time will have come 
for serious alarm. It matters not whether the 
encroachment comes from mistaken riglit, mis- 
taken duty, or from ambition, or political re- 
sentment. It is not to be tolerated in any case, 
and more especially in the latter. Every ap- 
proach of executive usurpation should be nut, 
nor should questionable authority on the part of 
an executive be allowed to grow into a precedent. 
Kxecutive usurpation, as history records, has 
been the agency in subverting nearly every re- 
publican government, and will, undoubtedly, 



sooner or later, test the strength of onr own 
Nothing can effectually guard against this danger 
but the determined resistance by Congress, aud 
such resistance to be sustained by the people. 

If the Constitution and rejiublic are sustained 
they will be sustained and perpetuated by the lov- 
ers of constitutionalliberty — such as look upon the 
constitutional rights of tlio citizen as " the para- 
mount ofijcrt in the i7islilulionofr/ove>-n>iic7)i." There 
is no other political force in the United States that 
can be relied on — no other that can be trusted. All 
political contrivers, whose ideas are not firndy 
and steadfastly fixed on the j)reservation of these 
rights, are little else than a political nuisance. 
The professions of men should pass for nothing 
except in connection with princii)le8 they are 
earnestly endeavoring to carry out. All men, 
whatever their object, from the genuine patriot 
to the usurping despoiler of his country, profess 
honesty of intention. Those who act from the 
most questionable motives are generally loudest 
in their professions of patriotism. In the midst 
of contending parties the land will teem with 
falsehood and hypocrisy. There is one unfailing 
test of sincerity, patriotism, and truth. I-)oes 
the man or his Jiarty stand firmly by the personal 
and political rights of the citizen, in all sections, 
in all places ; and does he seek to make jirotec- 
tion co-extensive with these rights? This plat- 
form is simple and ingenuous. None can cavil 
with it. None dare openly dispute its claims to 
support. Everybody from old age to childhood, 
white and black, can understand it. No true 
statesmanship can be built on any other plat- 
form, for no substantial prosperity can be achiev- 
ed under the reign of political ruffianism, violence, 
and crime. The party that stands firmest to the 
maintenance of these rights is the only party 
fit to administer any government, State or 
National. 

TIIE ELEXTEXTS COifPOSIXG TnE ADVERSE PARTIES. 

A passing word with regard to the make-up of 
political parties may not be out of place. The 
party of constitutional liberty is composed of the 
political forces that have stood by the govern- 
ment in its peril. Si)eaking in a philosophic 
sense, it embraces the radical or " free soil " ele- 
ment of the old democratic party ; the republi- 
can or democratic wing of the old whig party ; 
the republican portion of the naturalized popu- 
lation that intelligently stands on principle ; the 
unconditional white Unionists of the South who 
have struggled against rebellion under all peril; 
the four million colored citizens. North and 
South, who have established their right to as- 
sist in defending the constitution and the Union 
by arms, and an equal moral right to sustain 
them by their votes; — and recently, the prom- 
ised afiiliation of the Fenian Hrotherhood that 
represents the sorrowing heart of Ireland in its 
longinn:s to disenthral its native country from 
the aristocratic lied of Britain. These are tho 
forces on one side, and their simjile creed is, 
" TTie constitutional rightu of the citizen through- 
out the Union must be maintained inviolate P' 



32 



Opposed to this party we note the materials 
represented in tlie late Philadelphia Convention. 
The apostates from the Union party, the merce- 
nary managers and traders for official patronage, 
who devised the President's policy, stand in the 
foreground. This handful of men formed the nu- 
cleus around which the siipporing forces were 
^ invited to rally. The rally was made, and we 
5 shall not be disputed wheu we assert that it em- 
braces every usurping element of treason in the 
South — every antidemocratic force in the slave 
• States that voluntarily supported tlie rebellion. 
It embraces every political element in the Is'orth 
that sympathizes with treason and its anti-demo- 
cratic objects. Not a single contumacious force. 
North or South, that opposed the war or dispar- 
aged the cause of the government during the 
war, but what was represented in that conven- 
tion. It had one article in its creed, and that 
was — the usurpation of the President ! It had 
manifold objects to achieve by forcing the usur- 
pation as a finaiity. One was, to compel the 
recognition of the illegitimate State governments 
b)uilt on usurpation, and Avhich are precisely as 
hostile to the principles of the Constitution as 
they were before they seceded, or during the 
war. Another was, to break down the majority 
in Congress and the party that elected it ; and 
to inaugurate a Congress with rebel ideas, to be 
sustained by the identical forces in combination 
that composed the consevfitive convention at 
Chicago and tlie rebel CongTess at Richmond in 
18(54. The President and his support rs seem 
determined to force this party, mainly composed 
of rebels and the apologists of treason, into per- 
manent power. He intends to subjugate the 
party that nurtured him into the foreground, 
sustained him as long as he stood by principle, 
and only abandoned him when he had taken the 
last step in apostacy by going entirely over to 
the rebels. We would respectfull\' suggest to his 
excellency that he has undertaken a conquest 
that will prove difficult and troublesome. It 
would have been quite as easy for him to have 
kept on in the line of duty in subduing the bal- 
ance of the rebellion, as it will be to subordinate 
the Union party to the behests of treason. If, 
in his late Philadelphia Convention, the Presi- 
dent has thrown his glove, in the form of a 
threat of " another civil war," this Convention 
takes it up. 

APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF THE NORTH. 

AVe appeal to every lover of justice and bene- 
Hcent government in the North— to every advo- 
' cate of such government as should be provided 
in the South. AVe state to you sincerely and 
truthfuUj-, that had the rebels.'after the military 
surrender, said to the Unionists in good faith : 
"Now, let us buri/ all past animosities ;" " we ptro- 
pose to let hij-gones he by-goncs;" "we will now 
cheerfully give our support in pood faith to the 
national government ;" " we will now aim to bring 
about a state of things whereby property and life 
shall be made secure, and every human being shall 
be protected in h'S rights/' "we now propose to 



cast aside all virulence of pariyism, and to join in 
the adoption of such course, and such comity, as 
will encourage and invite population, capital, and 
enterprise, and make the South flourish on its in- 
dustries ;" — not a Union man in all the South but 
who would have met them on this ground. Not 
a Union man in the South but who is ready to meet 
them on this ground to-day. Had the President 
said this, and said firmly, " This must be the 
basis of reconciliation;" "this nmst be the 
ground work of reconstruction," not a Union 
man in the South but who would have cluno- to 
him with affectionate fidelity, atid each and all 
of them would have joined in the prayer, " God 
help you to accomplish it /" At one time, soon 
after the surrender of Lee, the above programme 
for healing the dissensions of the South looked 
propitious. The old leaders of secession took 
the alarm. We now call upon the recollection 
of those lead.ars who sounded the tocsin at Mont- 
gomery, Alabama, to their kindred spirits of the 
South. " We must never acknowledge that seces- 
sion was xorong." " We must never admit that our 
right to separation was unfounded." " Whatever 
OUT misfortunes, toe must vindicate the principles 
we professed, and stand by them." This was the 
instruction in substance. It was spread with 
the speed of electricity throughout the South. 
It was caught up and propagated by nearly all 
the rebel press. Immediately following, every 
device, social and political, was put in active 
requisition to make treason popular and Union- 
ism odious. 

We have no words to address to the heartless 
contrivers of the late Philadelphia Convention, 
or to those of the North who have sympathized 
with and been the persistent apologists of trea- 
son. We deplore the losses of Southern Union- 
ists, whose eight hundred millions, or more, have 
been confiscated, sacrificed, and destroyed by 
rebels. We commiserate the condition of the 
widowhood and orphanage of the South, made 
such by the relentless conscription that forced 
their protectors, against their will, into the rebel 
service. We have an abiding sympathy with the 
bulk of the Southern population, white and black, 
that either is, or can be brought into a frame of 
mind that would make it an el?ment of national 
strength; but with the iacorvigible portion of 
the rebel element that still jiersisfs in making 
the loyalty of the South odious and treason pop- 
ular, we have no terms to make. Those of the 
South who have sufi'ered for their fidelty to pr n- 
ciple can suffer still; but when the time comes 
that they are permanently and hopelessly sacri- 
ficed in order to carry out the plans of the politi- 
cally vitiated forces in combination, there will be 
an end of the union of these States. To that por- 
tion of the people of the North who take pride in 
a great nationality, who would maintain the public 
faith inviolate, who look upon protection to the 
rights of the citizen as the first object of gov- 
ernment, and justice to all as the principle that 
gives strength and stability to political institu- 
tions, we say, prayerfully, God help you to be 
firm. It will be in time to appease rebels when 



33 



they manifest a willinsnc-s to have government 
established on the golden rule, and consent to be 
just It w^ll be i:i time to elevate treason and 
degrade loyalty when your assent is obtained to 
the demolition of republican government. 

During the last six years we have been pain- 
fully instructed by the teachings of calamity. 
Our distresses have sprung entirely from and 
can be traced to a violation of natural and politi- 
cal right. We declare with e(|ual confidence that 
all the substantial good achieved by the peo]>]c 
of this nation, industrial, educati-iual, and politi- 
cal ; all our national strongtli and stability in 
government, have grown out of the maintenance 
of constitutional right. We are not such j>oliti- 
cal infidels as to believe that national quietude, 
material prosjjerity, or tlie popular welfare can 
be promoted by the perversion of these rights. 
W'e declare, as the opinion of this (Convention, 
that not less than thirtj' millions of our popula- 
tion possess all the natural motives, and aie in- 
terested by all they hold dear, to maintain these 
rights. We further declare, distinctly, our pur- 
pose to assist in bringing into politi al affiliation, 
and also into military organization, every man 
of whatever race or color, who will vote for those 
rights ; fight for them if need be ; with the fur- 
ther declaration, that rebels and the apologists 
of treason in their present frame of mind, shall 
never be permitted to rule this nation under any 
circumstances whatsoever. 

PnOTECTITK POWER OF CONGRESS. 

All the constitutional rights of the citizen are 
placed under the guar(li:inslup of the political | 
power of the nation. This power is purely ju'o- i 
tectivo. It was made politically supreme for | 
the express purpose of protection. It can pass | 
all laws ncceK.-.ary ami proper to carry into execu- j 
tion all provisions of tlie Constitution. Obsolete 
Slavery can now look back to the time when 
its aid was invoked to make the rights of prop- 1 
ert}' more secure under the fugitive slave law. 
Colored citizenship can now invoke its aid to | 
pass all \aws ncress^ary and jiropfr yo c,i\c CiTec- | 
tive protection to its rights, irrespective of the ' 
nature of the means, so be it, that tiic means an- | 
necejssari/ and propter to acconi|)ii^h tiie object, i 
The jurist may look back to the Judiciary Act 
of 1790, and see how carcfullj' tlie rights of proj)- | 
crty in litigation were guarded again.~t the o\>- 1 
struction to justice by local and clanish I'reju- , 
dice. Thwwasdonc by according to the privilege i 
of removing causes for adjudica; ion, in certain 
ca-ses, from State to Federal courts. The words \ 
necfimary and projirr received a judicial interpre- 
tation by the Supreme Court of the United SLntes, 
in deducing the poW( r of Congress under the 
<'on3titutiontoestabli.-h a National liank. Wiiat- 
cvcr is nrrcsaari/ and jiroper, as a means to be 
adopted, to carry into elToct or execution anv 
provision of the Con.-titution, is a question, as 
decided by the Sui)reme Court, for the cxclusi\ e 
consideration of ( ongre.-s. Some of tliese powo-s 
have Iain dormant, the exigencies uot having 



arisen, until recently, to call thoin into requisi- 
tion. The rebellion, the war, and its results, as 
well as the changed relation of classes, have made 
many things ntcrs^uni and proper that would not 
have been deemed so had tho relations of the 
States and inhabitants remained undisturbed. 
It would be strange, indeed, if the rights and in- 
terests of four million jieople had not as strong 
claims upon Congress for all means etleetive in 
giving protection, as Sl.averyhad in (he adoption 
(if the fugitive slave law; as a litigant in court 
has under tlie judicia-.-j' act, or as corporators 
had in the establishment of a United States 
Bank. Whenevtr it can be shown that it is 
nrceKmry and proptr for Congress to make our 
political system homogeneo-.is by ]>rescribing a 
uniform rule of suflrage for .".11 the States, the 
members of this Convention will be prepared to 
show that Congress lias tlu' power to do it. 
Whenever it is shown tliat it is necesxan/ and 
proper, as a me:ins of pro'ection, for Congress to 
prescribe a rule of suffrage for the people of the 
rebellious States, we will also be pr»pared to 
show clearl}' its constitutionality. 

POLITICAL ATTITUDE OF CONGRESS. 

The present position of the m;iJority in Con- 
gress is this: 

let. The conslitr.iional rights of the citizens, 
as established l)y tlie Con.stitution, nmst be main- 
tained inviolate luider the clause which invests 
Congress with power to make all laws nereHsary 
andproper to curry into execution the provisions 
of the instrument. 

id. These rights being established by the su- 
preme law of the land, there is no power, legis- 
lative, executive, or judicial, St.ite or Kational, 
that has authorily to transgress or invade them ; 
and protection to these rights must be made co- 
extensive with American citizenship. 

Zd. If the maintenance of these rights involves 
the political necessity of disfranchising traitors 
to tho Constitution and government, then such 
traitors must be disfranchised. 

4<A. The pu1)Iic faith must be kept inviolate ; 
the defenders of the nation must be affectionately 
remembered and honored ; and the widowhood 
and orphan.age that lost its protectors infighting 
the b.-iltles of the Union must be cherished and 
sustained. 

^th. The rebel w.ir debt, traitorously contracted 
to overthrow the Consti'ait'on and government, 
must be forever rcjuKliatcd by constitutional pro- 
visions, and in siich form that no change of par- 
ties in politics! power shall ever be able to re- 
vive it. 

CiA. The emam ij,alion of slaves having be- 
come a military, as well as political necessity in 
upholding the princijiles of repuliHcan govern- 
ment, it is unjutt, unwise, and impolitic to award 
comjiensation, thereby inflicting adtlitioual bur- 
dens of tiiousands of millions on the already 
overburdened indu.stry of the nation. 

Congress and tho people are not unmindful of 
the facts, that wliilc the sjiirit born of Slavery 



34: 



has grievously impaired llie common rights of 
the citizen and disparaged the masses, it has 
inflicted injuries on the people such as no nation 
could endure that was not endowed with natural 
resources of most unlimited extent. Were we 
to estimate the investment of Southern surpluses 
in slaves whereby mechanical and other necessary 
industries in the South were paralyzed; the 
deficiency in Southern production resulting 
therefrom; the rebel war debt and the destruc- 
tion of property consequent on the war; tiie 
Union war debt with the vast amount to be 
paid in interest ; tlie destruction of industrial 
labor ; to say nothing of republican ideas 
debauched and made politically vicious ; the 
sacrifices would amount nearly to the entire 
value of the property of the Union in 1860. 
Such is the result of Slavery, that contaminated 
nearly every thing it touched ; and such the 
political economy attempted to be built upon it. 
The unconditional loyal Unionists of the South 
who concur in the idea that constitutional 
protection is of paramount importance, and the 
rights of the citizen the first object of govern- 
ment, forego all claims for slaves emancipated, 
and cheerfully tender them as an humble offering 
to the great cause of republican liberty. 

THE DISPOSITION OF CONGKESS. 
In speaking of the majority in Congress and 
its disposition towards the people of the South, 
we arrogate nothing in saying that we know 
precisely the sentiments entertained by that 
body. There is not an intelligent man in the 
United States, North or South, but who knows 
there is nothing of a political nature so much 
desired by Congress as that the South should be 
politically restored at the earliest day possible 
tliat it can be accomplished on the basis of 
protective Slate fiovernnients. There is prevailing 
through the South to-day the same spirit of 
violence and assassination that lately exhibited 
itself at Memphis and Kew Orleans. When it 
was asserted in the columns of the National 
Intelligencer that a convention of the character 
here assembled " would not be tolerated in any 
place in the South," the author knew well 
whereof he spoke. It is useless attempting to 
disguise the fact that throughout the whole 
South the practice of regulating political opinion 
by mobs, terrorism and violence, exists as much 
as ever and exists in all places where it has not 
been broken by military force, immediately 
followed by the disfranchisement of rebels. 
"What could Congress, or the Union party, more 
desire than that the people of the South should 
have protective government ; established through 
State organizations; entirely beneficent in their 
character; well disposed to the Union, and 
just to the rights of every citizen? This, we 
know, is precisely what Congress is aiming at, 
and the intelligent rebels know it as well as we. 
Congress has labored to give protection wherever 
it could against the murderous spirit of Southern 
treason, still wickedly disposed, and this the 
Northern apologist of treason knows as well as 



we. It is useless attempting to pervert the 
honest designs of an intelligent and patriotic 
body of men, intent, and firmly intent, on 
carrying out the protective principles of the 
Constitution by forcing the unwilling contumacy 
of rebellion into the adoption of such State 
government as would give protection to the 
rights of all: — government that would establish 
peace on the only basis whereon it is possible 
for peace to be established: — such government 
as would make life and property secure; invite 
population, capital and enterprise; and make 
the South floui'ish on its industries instead of 
being despoiled of prosperity by the practically 
destructive ideas and contumacy of its rebel 
conspirators. 

UNION MUST BE ON THE PRINCIPLES OF THE 
CONSTITUTION. 

A political uuion of the States, without a 
union upon the beneficent principles of the 
Constitution, is but another name for sectional- 
ism and perpetual war. It might be convenient 
for party contrivers, but would result in no 
good to the interests or people of the South. 
We have had enough of the calamities resulting 
from this kind of union. Ilebel ideas in one 
section and republican ideas in another will be 
certain to work the same politic. 1 divergence 
that taught us we had no union. It matters not 
how many civil wars it may cost, tlie rebel 
ideas that produced the revolt must be extin- 
guished. They might have been virtually 
extinguished to-day, had the President acted up 
to the rational plan of making the rights of 
citizenship instead of rebel representation in 
Congress the basis of reconstruction. There i* 
one sovereign higher than tlie President; higher 
even than Congress, and that sovereign will be 
obeyed. It deals with States as imperiously as 
it has dealt with rebels, and nothing of an 
executive, political or judicial nature in the 
Union but what is subordinate to it. That 
sovereign is the Constitution. It is as beneficent 
as it is inexorable. It is as mild as it is supreme. 
It constitutes the only plan ever devised by 
statesmen and political philosophers whereby 
government was founded on the golden rule. 
This Constitution is the embodiment of republi- 
can ideas and political truth, firmly ingrained 
in the sentiments and attachments of the bulk 
of the American people, and admired by the 
liberalists the world over. Much as it has been 
praised and extolled, it would be praised and 
extolled in a manifold degree were its beneficent 
principles more widely and truly comprehended. 
The Unionists of the South represented in this 
Convention have sent three hundred thousand 
troops into the Union army to uphold it. Should 
the occasion again occur, they will send twice 
that number to maintain it, and to maintain all 
the rights of citizenship under it. The Union 
soldiers of the South send greeting to the noble 
veterans of the North, and propose this joint 
pledge — "Ko sacrilegious hand shall be permitted 



35 



io tlespoil ihU charter of liberty of a ningle feature 
•that adorns the instrument I" 

REMINISCENCES OF IXDEPEXDENCE HALL. 

The memberfl of this Convention are assembled 
liere to-day to assert and maintain the constitu- 
tional rifflits ot the citizen. We are well aware, 
as assured in the columns of the special orRan 
of tho President, that a convention of tiiis 
character " would not be tolerated or allowed to 
assemble in the Soutlu" The reason of this is 
found in the re-animation of rebel atrocity by 
encouragement through the President's policy. 
The complexion of the case is only an illustration 
of the axiom, that " where civil liberty does uot 
exist, tyraiwij and opprexsion are sure to prevail." 
How different in this land, made sacred by tlie 
reminiscences of the early patriots. In this city 
— here in Independence Hall, where the voice 
of our Fathers proclaimed a new theory of 
government, founded on the protective principle, 
the Unionists of the South may still assemble, j 
Under a cheering welcome fi-om tlie heart of j 
the North, they can re-assert the doctrines of 
their sires. In imagination, the associations 
connected with this venerable place bring those 
departed spirits before us. There sat Hancock, 
in calm dignity, presiding over a Congress about 
to utter the greatest words ever politically 
spoken. There sat Lee and there Pinckney. 
There sat Adams and there Carroll. There stood 
the five great menasthej' unrolled the immortal 
document that asserted and proclaimed the 
inalienable rights of humanity. There stands 
the bell that rung out tlie first great peal of 
American Liberty — and there — outside, stood 
the assembled citizens breathlessly waiting fur 
the signal tlmt was to indicate that the great 
declaration had passed. Strange indeed, that 
we, the common inheritors of the political rights, 
vindicated and established by our revolutionary 
fathers, should be compelled to return to this 
birth-place of Liberty to proclaim anew its 
doctrines, while at the same time we are con- 
strained, in humiliation, to note and mark the 
political degeneracy of the Soutli. Humiliating 
as the task is, there is one consoling satisfaction. 
The ground on which Independence Hall stands 
is still sacred to Liberty. The people of the 
State wh<j have it in keejdiig are uncomtaniiiia^ed 
with the vice of political apostacy. When this 
place shall be defiled by treason to the principles 
of the Constitution, and those having it in 
keeping shall become degenerate, then, and not 
till then, will the rebel declaration come true — 
that " liepublican fjoveT~nment is a failure." 

Mr. Tucker, Virginia — Mr. President, I would 
like to say concerning tho motion of ilr. Sher- 
wood — 

The C'hair — ilr. Tucker has not the floor. 

Several gentlemen now arose and endeavored 
to ol)tain a hearing. 

The Chair — rapping all down — Gov. Brown- 
low, of Tennessee, has the floor. 



Gov. BrowT.'iow, bowing his acknowledgmenls, 
said: Mr. Cljairman — I have but one remark to 
make, sir. My first connection with politics in 
this country, commenced in 18'2S, when in Ten- 
nessee. I was one of a corporal's guard who es- 
poused the cause of John Quiucy Adams. From 
that day to this 1 have been in conventions — 
State Conventions, Southern Conventions, Na- 
tional Conventions — and I have voted for and 
against addresses and documents of this kind, 
many and many a time. The address read this 
morning by the gentleman from Maryland (Sen- 
ator CreswcU), 1 regard as the most able and 
appropriate document I ever road. I have no 
objection to the amendment of -ny friend, Mr. 
Botts, because in my judgment it makes the 
document more severe ; and, on the whole, I am 
for adopting it without dotting an I or crossing 
aT. 

Mr. Botts — I would beg my friend's leave to 
say that I made no mention of amending by 
j striking out the words I refer to, I would only 
I suggest that I wo\ild like it better, and in order 
that there is to be no misunderstanding. I would 
1 suggest that the word "true" be inserted be- 
I fore the word Democracy. 

I Gov. Brownlow — We are aide to adopt it as it 

1 is. We are not prepared to stay here for nights 

' and days, and I hope v.'e will contril'ute toward 

I a fund for the publ'cation of li>,000,000 of copies, 

in type big and clear enough, and that Andy 

I Johnson, drunk or .sober, may read it. I move 

the previous question. I have been iu many 

' conventions — State Conventions, National Con- 

i ventions, Southern Conventions — I have voted 

for all kinds of addresses and documents of this 

kind, many, many times. The address read this 

morning by the gentleman from Maryland, is the 

most able and proper document I have ever 

heard or seen. 

The amendment offered by Mr. Botts was 
adopted. 

The question was then taken on the substitute 
for the address of the Committee, offered by ilr. 
Sherwood, of Texas, and decided in the neg- 
ative. 

The vote was then taken on the address re- 
ported by the Committee. The address was 
adopted. 

Gov. A. J. Hamilton, of Texas, as Chairman 
of the Committee, reported the following; 

The Committee on Resolutions beg leave to 
submit the following resolutions embodying tho 
views of a majority of the Committee, which 
do not contain all the inunciation of jirinciples 
desired by a minority of the Committee, but 
who, in a generous and conciliatory spirit, have 
united in submitting this report. 

RKSOLVTIONS. 

1. Re.tolrrtl, That the loyal people of the South 
cordially unite; with the loyal people of the 
North in thanksgiving to .Mmighty (Jod, through 
whose will a rebellion unparalleled for its cause- 
lessness, its cruelty, and its criminalitj', has 
been overruled to the vindication of the euprem- 



3G 



acy of the Federal Constitution over every State 
and TeiTitory of tlie Republic. 

2. Rcaoh'cd, That we demand now, as we have 
demanded at all times since the cessation of hos- 
tilities, that the restoration of the States in 
which we live, to their old relations with tlw 
Union on the simplest and easiest conditions 
consistent with the protection of our lives, prop- 
erty, and political ri^i'hts, now in jeopardy from 
the unquenched enmity of Rebels lately in arms. 
8. Resolved, Thas the unhappy policy of An- 
drew Johnson, President of the United States, 
is, in its effects upon the loyal people of the 
South, unjust, oppressive, and intolerable, and 
accordingly, however ardently we desire to see 
our respective States once nioie represented in 
the Congress of the Nation, we would deplore 
their restoration on the inadequate conditions 
prescribed by the President as tending not to 
abate, but only to magnify the perils and sor- 
rows of our condition. 

4. Renolved, That the welcome we hive re- 
ceived from the loj'al citizens of Philadelphia, 
under the roof of the time-honored hall in 
T\'hich the Declaration of Independence was 
adopted, inspires us with an animating hope that 
the princijiles of just and equal government, 
which were made the foundation of the Republic 
iit its origin, shall become the corner-stone of 
the Constitution. 

5. Resolved, That, with pride in tlic patriot- 
ism of Congress, with gratitude for the fearless 
and persistent support they have given to the 
cause of loyalty, and their efforts to restore all 
the States to their former condition p.s States in 
the American Union, we will stand by the posi- 
tions taken by them, and use all means consist- 
ent with a peaceful and lawful course, to secure 
the ratification of the amendments to the Consti- 
tution of the United States, as proposed by Con- 
gress at its recent session, and regret that the 
Congress, in its wisdom, did not provide by law 
for the greater security of the loyal people in 
the States not yet admitted to representation. 

tj. Resolved, That the political power of the 
Government of the United States in the admin- 
istration of public affairs, is, by its Constitution, 
confided to the popular or law-making depart- 
ment of the Government. 

7. Resolved, That the political status of the 
States lately in rebellion to the United States 
Government, and the rights of the peojde of 
such States, are political questions, and are 
therefore clearly within the control of Congress, 
to the exclusion of, and independent of any and 
every other department of the government. 

8. Resolved, That there is no right, political, 
legal, or constitutional, in any State to secede or 
withdraw from the Union; but they may, by 
wicked and imanthorizcd revolutions and force, 
sever the relations which they have sustained to 
the Union ; and when they do, they assume the 
attitude of public enemies at war with the United 
States ; they subject themselves to all the rules 
and principles of mternational law, and the laws 



of war applicable to beUigerents, according iu 
modern usage. 

9. Resolved, That we are unalterably in favor 
of the imion of the States, and earnestly desire 
the legal and speedy restoration of all the States 
to their proper places in the Union, and the 
establishment in each of them of influences of 
patriotism and justice, by which the whole na- 
tion shall be combined to carry forward tri- 
umphantly the principles of freedom and pro- 
gress, imtil all men of all races shall, everywhere 
beneath the flag of our country, have accorded 
to them freely all that their virtues, industry, 
intelligence and energy may entitle them to at- 
tain. 

10. Resolved, That the organizations in the un- 
represented States assuming to be State govern- 
ments, not having been legally established, are 
not legitimate governments until recognized by 
Congress. (Adopted.) 

11. Resolved, That we cherish with tender 
hearts the memory of the virtues, patriotism, 
sublime faith, upright Christian life, and gener- 
ous nature of the Martyr-President, Abraham 
Lincoln. (Adopted.) 

1 2. Resolved, That we are in favor of universal 
libeity the world over, and feel the deepest sym- 
pathy wdth the oppressed people of all countries 
in their struggle for freedom, and the right of all 
men to divide and control for themselves the 
character of the government under which they 
live. 

13. Resolved, That the lasting gratitude of the 
nation is due to the men who bore the battle, 
and in covering themselves with imperishable 
glory have saved to the world the hope of fre--. 
government ; and relying on " the invincible 
soldiers and sailors" who made the grand army 
and navy of the Republic to be true to the prin- 
ciples fur which they fought, we pledge them 
that we will stand by them in maintaining the 
honor due the saviors of the nation and in secur- 
ing the fruits of their victories. 

14. Resolved, That, remembering with pro- 
found gratitude and love the precepts of 
Washington, we should accustom ourselves to 
consider the Union as the prhnari^ object of 
patriotic desire, which has heretofore sustained 
us with great power in our love of the Union 
when so many of our neighbors in the South 
were waging war for its destruction, our deep 
and abiding love for the Father of His Country 
and for the Union is more deeply engraven on 
our hearts than ever. 

Mr. Grisham (Tenn.) — I move the previous 
question upon the adoption of those resolutions. 

The motion was put and agreed to. 

Mr. Stokes (Tenn.) — Mr. President, after the 
adoption of those resolutions a Committee will 
report an Address and Resolutions from the 
non-reconstructed States, separate and apart 
from the other. I desire to make this announce- 
ment in order that they may have an opportunity 
of presenting them at the proper time. 



37 



The resolutions 'wcro read a second time, cftf!li 
of tlit-ni being acted upon severally, and thej- 
were unanimously adopted. 

Mr. II. Maynard (IVnn.), after the eleventh 
resolution was again read, suggested that tlic 
Tonvcution manifest their approval b}- rising in 
silence. 

The President — I hope the Convention will 
acccj)t the suggestion. 

AVlien the question wa.s put the entire body 
rose upon their feet. 

■ The President — T pronounce the resolution 
unanimously adopted. 

A comnuinication was presented to the Chair 
and read, wh( rein the greetings of the Loyal 
Kadieal State Convention t f Kansas avc re ' 
sent to tiie Southern and other Conventions 
sitting in Phihideljihia, and stating that the 
jirayers of all loyal hearts are oflercd in behalf 
of tiie success of the principles and objects in 
which they were engaged. It bore the signature 
of the President of that body. j 

Itesoh'.tions were received passed at a meeting j 
of Northern delegates, wckumiiig and cheering 
their fellow-citizens who are assembled in Con- [ 
vention at I'hiladelphia, and recoo^nizing in the 
Southern Unionists now assembled here the 
true representatives of the men who, with so ! 
much patriotism, held to the I'nion in the late ; 
struggle for n.-itiouiil existence, and supported ■ 
the cause of freedom in th.e very hot-bed of' 
rebellion, 'i hey extend their hearty sympathy, \ 
not as a charitable donation, but ns a deserving 
encouragement for the performance of their 
p.atriotii- du'ic'*, which thc-y have a right to ' 
claim fi'om every loyal nir.n in the country, j 
Tiiey rcc<.aanerd the granting of riglits to those 
who have labored ia the cause of the country 
and of frcL'dom as a guarantee to their political ; 
power, : nd rejoicing in the hope that liberal 
and i npartial justice will dictate it, at the same 
time calling upon all liiionists, white and black, , 
to peril everylliing for the life of the Republic. 

The President announced the receipt of a | 
communication from the loj-iil men of Southern [ 
Alabama, v.hich was read. It was thus: 

ADDRESH FROM ALABAMA. I 

To the ITon. the Chairman of the " Loyal i 

Southern Convention," a.ssemblcd at the City \ 

of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, i 

Sept. 3, 1800. ' 

Sir: I am requested by a lar^e number of! 

loyal Unionists of Northern Alabama, resident; ' 

of Marion, \\'i.lUer, Winston, Moigun and Frank- ' 

lin Counties, to speak for them b}- letter to the ' 

Chairman of the Convention. 

They have instructed me to .say that they an- 
now, 83 ever, true and loyal men to the jirescnt 
Constitution. That lluv accept and fully support 
the policy laid down by the Con.'^ress of tin' 
United States in tb<- ( ivil Rights Pill, and (l.c 
])rovisions of the proposed amendment to tin- 
Constitution. 

They pledge to the I'luon Republican part v of 
the nation tlieir unwavering sujiport in Die ; 



consummation of its glorioi;.~, work of recon- 
structing this Government on an everlasting 
basis of Fieedom, .lustite and Equality. 

The.y thank the loyal masses of tlie North, 
and e.-pecia!ly do they thank ti;e soldiers and 
.sailors of the army and navy of the National 
Covernment for the sui)pression of the late 
Rebellion; watted for the sole purpose of 
establishing a sla^■e olig.",rchy in the South. 
whicli would have been more horrible and 
oppressive, if possible, to the loyal whites of the ' 
South than actual Slavery ; and eternal woe for 
the colored man rnd his posteiitj'; and they 
thank Almighty God for their deliverance. 

They renew their faith and alli'giance to the 
Federal Inion, r.nd pled^re their lives, property 
and sacred honors t(j the suj^jiort of the Great 
National Union Rei)ublican Parly — which has 
in its keeping the precious charter of our 
liberties — the Federal Constitution. 

They denounce the restoration policy of Mr. 
Johnson, especially as they believe it is calculated 
to give strength to the enemies of the Republic 
and weaken its friends. 

That they look rpon the late Johnson Conven- 
tion at Philadelphia as a first step taken in the 
grand ]>lo* now laid by trait( rs North and South 
to accomp'ifh the overthrow of the Republic, 
That they have come to this conclusion very 
reluctantly ; but j)assing events since the sur- 
render of the rebel armies have forcibly con- 
vinced them of its truth, and that it would be 
tsuicidaV to adii.it the Southern States as at 
])resent organized into the legislative council of 
the nation. 

They assure their loyal friends of the North 
that the same elements which " tired the Southern 
heart" and were principal instigators of the 
Southern Rebellion, and immediately after the 
.surrender apparently " accepted the situation" 
in good faith, have become emboldened b}' the 
course of President Johnson and his policy, and 
are to-day not onlj- demanding their admission 
back to seats in Congress with a spirit cS 
vindictiveness which is utterly di.sgusting, but 
they are trying again to "i;re the Souihem 
heart" by i)roclainiing that '■ negro etiuality " is 
to be forced upfin thnii unless they aid Jlr. 
Johnson in destroying the loyal Rcpublica:i 
party which they term " Radl< al," and declare; 
to the people that if Mr. Jolmson's jioliey meetj 
with a rebuke this fall, that war must settle the 
question — and they tell them '• Mo.ifj/oiiicri/ Blolr, 
a wise Staff xinan of tlir Xorlh, has predicted a 
contest between paities, if Jlr. Johr.son f.iils t<> 
carry out his policy." These loyal Ahibandans 
now wish to assure the loyal people of the Nortii 
and the Congresg of the United Slates that tlicv 
them.selves are not oppressed by a:iy law whic^i 
Congress has made, and being ci.nii<lent that < 
more than half of the voting population of 
Alabama are true and \n\:\\ citizens, and that 
they never have complained of op]>res8ive laws 
being imposed by Coiii^re-s, and who approve 
the Constitutional AmendmiTit as proposed in 
lolo, are encouraged to ask in the name of their 



38 



posterity that the Southern or rebellions States 
lie denied representation in the National Council 
until they shall have ratified the proposed 
Constitutional Amendment and remodeled their 
State constitution and laws, which are at present 
incompatible with a republican form of govern- 
ment. 

They regret exceedingly their inability to 
send representatives to this Convention, but 
desire to be remembered as friends battling for 
one common cause, which must ultimately prevail 
so sure as right must triumph over wrong. Yours, 
in the glorious cause for freedom and humanity, 
A. M. SIMMONS. 

Tuscumbia, Ala., August 29, 1866. 

A Delegate — Mr. President, I have a motion 
to submit, which I have no doubt will receive 
the unanimous approval of this body. The 
Convention which met in the City of Philadel- 
phia, on the 14th day of August, presented 
their resolutions and proceedings to their master, 
Andrew Johnson. I propose and make a motion 
to the effect that a Committee of one from each 
State be appointed to lay our address and our 
resolutions before the representatives of the 
people of the United States in Congress assem- 
bled. 

The motion was agreed to. 

( THE COMMITTEE TO INFORM 

CONGRESS. 

The following is the Committee appointed to 
■wait on Congress and present it with a copy of 
the official proceedings of the Convention: 
Lorenzo Sherwood, Texas; Thomas J. Durant, 
Louisiana ; the lion. Wm B. Stokes, Tennessee ; 
Lewis McKenzie, Virginia: Joseph E. Warton, 
West Virginia; G. W. Ashburn, Georgia; M. J. 
Saffold, Alabama ; Dr. L. L. Pinkton, Kentucky ; 
George L. Adams, Mississippi; Colonel John S. 
Cavender, Missouri ; A. A. C. Rogers, Arkansas ; 
the Hon. David R. Goodloe, North Carolina ; 
the Hon. D. Weigel, Maryland; the Hon. Philip 
Frazier, S. A. Bosworth, District of Columbia; 
the Hon. John A. Allendice, Delaware. 
I VISIT TO THE TOMB OF LINCOLN. 
' The Special Committee appointed by the 
Convention to make arrangements to visit the 
tomb of President Lincoln, through its chairman, 
Mr. Branscomb of Missouri, presented the fol- 
lowing report : 

The Committee report the following arrange- 
ments and time-table : 

The Delegation will leave Philadelphia on 
Monday, the l<!th inst. Speaking in New 
Jersey, under the direction of the State Com- 
mittee, on Wednesday evening. 

On Tuesday, the 11th inst, the Delegation 
v,-ill proceed to New York. Speaking in New 
York City that evening. 

A portion of the Delegation will proceed to 
Boston, Massachusetts, to attend the meeting 
held there in Faneuil Hall on Wednesday, the 
]2th. On Thursday and Friday, the 13th and 



14th instants, the Delegation will speak at. 
various points in Connecticut and Eastern New 
York, reuniting at Albany on Saturday, the 1 5th 
instant. 

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the 
l'7th, 18th and 19th instants, the Delegation will 
speak at various points in Central and Western 
New York, reuniting at Erie, Pennsylvania, on 
Wednesday night. 

On Thursday, the 20th instant, the Delegation 
will be at Cleveland, Ohio, and will speak at 
various points in Ohio under the direction of the 
State Central Committee, reuniting at Indianap- 
olis, Indiana, on Tuesday, the 25th instant, and 
will speak at various points in Indiana during 
the remainder of tlie week. 

On Monday, October 1st, the Delegation will 
reunite at Chicago, Illinois, whence they will 
proceed to the tomb of Abraham Lincoln. 

The Committee would state that this pro- 
gramme has been arranged after full concurrence 
with the delegations from the States through 
which the Delegation is to pass, and as far as 
possible with reference to the convenience of the 
Delegation. 

The Committee would state that the delegates 
from the Northern States have manifested an 
earnest desire that the Delegation should visit 
them, and have assured us they will be most 
heartily welcomed by the loyal people of the 
North. 

CHAS. H. BRANSCOMB, 

Chairman of the Committee. j 
t 

The following gentlemen were appointed to 
represent the Convention on the contemplated 
tour: 

Louisiana — The Hon. T. J. Durant, the Hon. 
J. R. G. Pitkin, the Rev. J. P. Newman. 

Tennessee — Gov. W. G. Brownlow, the Hon. 
Horace Mavnard, the Hon. S. M. Arnell, the 
Hon. A. J. Fletcher, the Hon. T. S. Fowler, Col. 
Wm. B. Stokes. 

Texas. — Gov. A. J. Hamilton, the Hon. J. H. 
Bell. 

Virginia. — The Hon. John Minor Botts, Judge 
John C. Underbill, the Hon. Lysander Hill, the 
Rev. J. W. Hunnicutt. 

West Virginia. — The Hon. A. J. Campbell, 
Gov. Boreman, the Hon. H. G. Pole, the Hon. C. 
G. Baylor. 

Alabama. — The Hon. Albert Griffin, the Hon. 
M. J. Saftbld, the Hon. D. H. Bingham. 

Kentucky. — The Hon. James Speed, the Rev. 
R. J. Breckinridge, the Hon. H. Stockbridge. 

Mississippi. — The Hon. R. 0. Sidney. 

Arkansas. — Gen. A. A. C. Rogers. 

Missouri. — Gov. Thomas C. Fletcher, the lion. 
Geo. P. Strong, Col. John S. Cavendar, the Hon. 
Madison Miller, W. L. Pope, Col. Charles E. 
Moss, the Hon. C. H. Branscomb, Col. Weston 
Flint. 



39 



K'oRTn Carolina. — The lion. Daniel R. Good- 
loe, Hope Bain. 

Marylani>. — The lion. A. J. Cresswell, the 
Hon. II. 8. Bond, the Hon. John L. Thomas, Jr., 
the Hon. J. J. Stewart. 

Delaware. — The Hon. Nathaniel B. Smithers. 

Indiana. — Col. D. B. Hart, the Hon. P. Fraser. 

District ok Columbia. — Gen. Joseph Ger- 
hardt. 

Mr. George Tncker, of Virijinia, Gen. E. J. 
Davis, and Lorenzo Sherwood, of Texas, and 
eeveral others, were added to the list. 

Dr. R. 0. Sidney, of Mississippi, offered the 
following resolution : 

Jiexolved, That a Finance Committee of five be 
Rj)pointed to raise funds for the purpose of de- 
fraj-ing the expenses of printinor and publishing 
the proceedings of this Convention. The reso- 
lution was adopted, and Dr. Sidney. 

were appointed said committee. 

On motion of Mr. Sherwood, of Texas, it was 

Resolved, That a Committee of three be appoint- 
ed to superintend tlie ])rinting and publishing of 
the proceedings of the jtresent Convention. 

The following Committee was appointed : 
The Hon. Lorenzo Sherwood, of Texas, the Hon. 
John A. Cresswell, of Maryland, and Col. Weston 
Flint, of Missouri. 

JXVITATIOX TO VISIT NEW YORK. 

A communication was received from the Loyal 
Union League cf Kew York, requesting the 
Southern delegates to visit New York. The in- 
vitation was accepted. 

George Barbour Lewis, of Memphis, Tenn., 
offered the following resolution: 

Resolved, That it is emphatically the duty of the 
Nation to see to it effectu.-dly that, in sucli mode 
as ma^- be efficient, a free and amj)le education, 
under loyal infuences, be provided for all the 
children and youth of all the late Ilebcl States 
not yet readmitted; and tlie poisoning of the 
minds of Southern youth by the teaching of se- 
ces.-ion and treason in their common school.s, 
academies and colleges shall be prevented and 
supj)resscd. 

Judge Lewis said that, at the suggestion of his 
friend Stokes of Tennessee, he would substitute 
the word "reorganized" for the word "readmit- 
ted." It was important that the cliildren of the 
South should lie educated und;T loyal iiifluences, 
especially tlio.-e under the special tutelage of 
the Government, whether white or black, in any 
way that Congress biiould deem expedient. 

A Delegate from Tei.nessee moved to lay t'.?' 
resolution upon tlie taide, sa3ing they shoul 1 
iirst take care of their own friends. 

A Delegate from Delaware moved to refer to 
the Committee on unreconstructed States. 

Gen. liogcr.s, of Arkansas, said that he had 
been opi»osed all his life to strife en account of 



the principle 4nvolved in the resolution. This 
resolution was based upon a proposition that was 
not a fact, viz., that there was a degree of igno- 
rance among the white people of the South, as 
fanatical men would have them believe. He had 
lived South all his life, and did not desire to 
hear reflections cast upon their people, even 
though thej- had coinmitted the enormous crime 
of treason. [Cries of question being made, the 
President asked Gen. P. to confine himself to the 
question.] He then concluded by saying that 
he was opposed to placing the entire destinies of 
his section in the hands of Congress. 

The motion to refer to the Committee on Unre- 
constructed States was carried. 

Various motions to adjourn were offered and 
lost. 

The Hon. John L. Tliomas, Jr., of Slaryland, 
offered a resolution of thanks to President Speed 
and the officers of the Convention, for the able 
manner in which they had filled their positions ; 
which was carried. 

0. G. Goldsborough of Maryland, offered the 
following resolution, which was adopted : 

Resolved, That this Convention returns its 
hearty thanks to the Union League of Philadel- 
phia, for the magnificent banquet given at the 
League House on Wednesdaj', September 6th, 
1866. 

A Delegate moved to adjourn sine die. 

A Delegate — I see that it is intended to force 
this Convention to adjourn sine die to-day, to 
choke off all discussion. That cannot but sow 
seeds of disorder and contention among us. 

On motion, the Convention then adjourned at 
2 J o'clock until 6 p. m. 

Eveninrt Session. 
PROPOSED ADJOURNMENT SINE DIE. 

The President called the Convention to order 
at 6 o'clock. 

Gov. Brownlow s.iid — Mr. President : We have 
been engaged for the past four days and nights 
in very laborious duties. We have in those four 
daj's done a good work, and done it well. Many 
of us are now obliged to leave for our homes — 
some have left already. I therefore move that 
this Convention now adjourn i>.ine dii. 

The Chairman of the Finance Committee ap- 
pointed to raise funds to defray expenses of the 
Convention, called the attention of the Conven- 
tion to the fact tliat but a portion of the necessary 
funds had been collected, and hoped the Conven- 
tion would not adjourn sine die without making 
some further provision for the payment of the 
expenses. 

Judge C. B. Sabin, of Texas, moved that the 
vote on the adjournment should be taken by 
States. 

Mr. Wiirnioulh, rhn'.rman of the Committee 
on the Non-reconstructed States, attemjjted to 
address the Convention in rcfi-reme to the re- 
port of that Committee, but was ruled out of 
order, as a motion to adjourn was before the 
House, wiiich was not debatable. 



40 



A motion was made to lay the pending motion 
on the table, and the inquiry was made whether 
the vote on that motion could be taken by 
States. 

A delegate inquired whether there was a 
quorum present ; if not, whether the Convention 
could adjourn si)ic die. 

The motion to table the pending motion was 
then put, and lost. 

The question then recurred on the motion to 
take the vote on the adjournment sine die by 
States. 

Gov. Fletcher, of Missouri, moved to amend 
by providing that each State be entitled to as 
many votes as they have representatives in Con- 
gress at the last apportionment. 

Mr. Warmonth, of Louisiana, stated that the 
Committee appointed by the Convention on the 
condition of the non-reconstructed States would be 
ready to rej^ort at 10.30 to-morrow morning, and 
trusted that the Convention would not adjourn un- 
til the report had been received and acted upon, 
and insisted that great injustice would be done 
the non-reconstructed States by such a prema- 
ture adjournment. ' 

Mr. Warmouth spoke at length, urging the 
('onventionto receive the report before their ad- 
journment, but as there were no lights in the 
i-oom the reporter was unable to write his re- 
marks. 

A delegate from Maryland moved that the 
Convention adjourn until 10 o'clock to-njorrow 
morning, then to receive the report. Ruled out 
of order. 

Mr. Clayton(Md.), moved the previous motion. 
Mr. Cresswell (Md.), spoke in reply to Mr. War- 
mouth. The motion of the jirevious question 
was lost. 

A great deal fif confusion followed, several 
members attem.pting to speak at the same time 
amid cries of " light, light," and " order, order." 

The gas having been lighted, Mr. Clayton, at 
the request of Gov. Hamilton, withdrew the call 
lor the previous question. 

GOV. HaMILTOX. 

Gov. flaniilton then addressed the Convention, 
and in the course of his remarks appealed to 
members not to urge the motion for adjournment 
dne die, as it could only produce confusion in the 
(.'onvention, and would do great injury to the 
non-reconstructed States. T l;e delegation from 
the border States were attempting to force this 
l)remati;re adjournment, and thus shirk the re- 
sponsibility which they feared might attach to 
them if they adopted the report of the Committee, 
lie would inform the gentlemen from the border 
States that according to the original design of 
this Convention, they were not included in the 
call and that it was not intended that they should 
participate in its proceedings. The invitation 
was finally extended to them out of sheer cour- 
tesy, and it was not thought that the courtesy 
Mould be requited as it hud been. [Cries of 
•' Order, order."] 



Mr. Cresswell, of Maryland, appealed to the 
gentleman from Texas (Gov. Hamilton), to allow 
him one word in explanation. 

Gov. Hamilton — " You have had nearly all the 
words of this Convention, and I claim some 
privileges for myself." He then stated that the 
representatives of the border States were largelv 
in the majority; that they were almost ten to 
one in members over the delegations fi'om the 
non-reconstructed States ; that ihe Gulf and non- 
reconstructed States had been already compelled 
to yield much — too nnich. The object of the 
call was to place before the intelligent millions 
of the North the true condition of the loyalist ot 
the South. The}' had not come here to influence 
ihe election of one more or one less representa- 
tive from Maryland to the next Congress. They 
had met to settle questions affecting the very 
life of the nation, irrespective of the manner in 
which it mightxaffect any of the leading political 
questions of the coimtry. They had not yet 
completed their work. A Special Committee had 
been appointed by the Convention, charged with 
the special duty of reporting on tlie condition 
and the necessities of the reconstructed States. 
The other conmiittees, on the addresses and re- 
solutions, had presented their reports, and now 
the border States attempted to close the mouths 
of the Ctmvention by a forced adjournment. If 
they desire to escape t!ie responsibility ot what 
other members might say in the Convention, 
they need not endorse the report. The border 
delegates need not bear the responsibility of what 
the poor whites of the South did. They were 
up to the mark, the border States were not. 
There had been a statesman in Maryland, the 
ringing tones of vhose manly voice he remem- 
bered, and who would not have attempted to 
produce a schism in this Convention to advance 
his political interest. God bless the memory ot 
Henry Winter Davis ! [Sensation.] There was 
a point beyond which the human heart refused 
longer to be crushed ; he appealed to them not 
to attemjit to stifle the ojiinions nor conceal the 
true condition of the nun-comprouiising Union 
men of the South. He hoped that tiiey would 
hear the report and act uyjon it before adjourn- 
ing. He did not want to impairthe moral effect 
of that T-eport by having it said that the Conven- 
tion adjourned and left but a little tail of tlie 
Convention to consider it. I iehad no doubt but 
that Andy Johnson would be intinitely obliged 
to th.e border States if they succeeded in luuz- 
zling the other delegates in the way attempted. 
Act the manly part. I)o justly, fearless of all 
political consequences. He had been denounced 
as a felon. There was scarcely a crime known 
to humanity with wliich he had not been charged, 
and all because he hud dared to tell the loyal 
peoj)le of the United States the solemn truth. 
There were men from the South here, against 
whose chai-acter there was no reproach engaged 
in the same cause, and he felt a personal interest 
in having the truth stated by the united dele- 
srates of the Southern States. 



41 



SENATOR FOWLEK. 

Senator Fowler, of Tennessee, trnsted the 
Convention would not now adjourn, 'lliey came 
liere on a noble mission, too precious to be 
measured by hours and minutes. They were to 
licvise means to shield the loyal people in their 
midst. Their hearts were bound in a common 
cause ; many await our action with anxiety. 
'Jhe only reason they had not more men here 
from Georyia, Alabama, Mississijipi, and South 
Carolina, was merely because they could not 
come. Their lu'urts and their syuipaihies were 
with this Convention. [ Ajiplau-so.] But to 
listen to thosy who have come he was willing to 
remain longer. The stories of murdered Union 
men continued to sweep over the land, and they 
must look to it that protection is extended to 
one and all. [Ajijilause.] Allusions h.ive been 
made to Maryland. lie deprecated them ; for 
that noble, gallant, and patriotic State stands as 
cne of the foremost in the cause of justice and of 
freedom. [Applause.] "When Rebellion stifled 
the breath of patriotism, the cheering gales from 
Maryland revived the vital spark. [Applause.] 
That, indeed, was a nolle State aiid a noble 
people. We are not prepared to cradle in ob- 
livion the memory cf the gallant and fearless 
Davis. [Loud applai:se.] No, he still lives in 
the hearts of the jieop'e of Tennessee as denr as 
any human being who has passed from this earth 
in the last ceninry. His spirit dwells among 
them, his voice s'.ill echoes in the temple of free- 
dom — a divine music to the loyal American peo- 
ple. Those of Irs State honor and are honored 
by the memory of Davis. Their arms and hearts 
are ever in the cause of patriotism. With these 
reflections, could they adjourn now ? He trust- 
ed not. Ihey shouhl remain another day. [Ap- 
plause.] It is a very small sacrifice in a holy 
cause. 

COL. m'kii.lip. 
Col. M'Killip. of ,^!arylan(l. — 1 thank the gen- 
tleman from 'lennessec for the kind allusion he 
has made to JIatyland, but she ni'ciis no defense. 
As to the motion to ndjourn .ihir <//>, I need but 
Kay it emanated from Gov. lirownlow, of Ten- 
nessee; that diverts it fi-om any garb of doubt. 
[A])plause.] Again I thank the gentleman who 
l)recedtd me, although Maryland, the object of 
his eulogy, is accused of being behind time. 
Let me say there is a jewel in her crown t!ie 
brilliancy of which has evoked the nijplau-^e of 
the nation. I allude. Sir, to t!ie fact that winn 
I mancipation was first suggesti-d, Maryland a I- 
vanced, without the guidance of even Con^r.'-s. 
herself, and there hho etands alone. [Cheen 
and applause.] She did not wait for the C'onsii- 
tutional amendment, nor for the oueouragem' iit 
of the Inited States (Jovcrnment. [Applnuse. | 
I imagine that we have been misappreheniled iiv 
tliosc who wotild c.i>.t undeserved obloiiuy njmn 
MS. It is osserte<l that in ])reparing the addre -• 
to be made by n Committee from tiie non-recon- 
structed Stales, emiodying the history of tinir 
grievances, that letters would be prcrcuted, the 
G 



authors of which would not appear. My under- 
standing is that they were to represent to the 
Convention their real condition, the wrongs they 
suffered, and the elFeetsof the President's policy. 
JS'ow, 1 hold it is eminently proper that they 
should themselves attend to it. Coming from 
them, it would have umch more force and 
weight. 

GOV. BP.OWNLOW. 

Gov. I'.rownlow, of Tennessee, said that he 
rose in his feebleness to undo what he had done. 
He wi.=hcd to say that he had had no conversa- 
tion with any genlh-man from Maryland on thtj 
subject. He had no understanding with any- 
body or anj' delegation. He had known that a 
large number of delegates were going away to- 
night. They had done their work, and done it 
we 1 ; and he thought they might get into some 
disturbance if they remained, and do more harm 
than good; for that reason he had moved to ad- 
journ f!ine die. Some gentlemen, from a mis- 
taken view of his character, said that the}' wero 
afraid of negro suffrage, and wanted to dodge it. 
He had never dodged any subject, nor was h».* 
ever found on both sides of an}' subject. Whih^ 
he was satisfied with everything done, he would 
go further. He was an advocate of negi-o suff- 
rage and im])artial suffrage. He would rather 
be ele(!ted by loyal negroes than by disloyal 
white men. He would rather associate with 
loyal negroes than with disloyal white men. Ho 
would rather be buried in a negro graveyard 
than a rebel graveyard ; and after death he would 
sooner go to a negro's heaven than a rebel white 
man's hell. He then withdrew- the motion to 
adjourn. 

A motion was made that when the Conventiofi 
adjourn, it be till to-morrow at in (/clock, whioli 
was carried. 

SKNATOR WILLKV. 

The ITon. Mr. Willey desired to know whether 
it was expected that the delegates from the re- 
constructed States were to take part in the dis- 
cussion of the report which was to be submitted 
to-morrow. (Cries of " No, no."] Having then 
finished their business so far as the border States 
were concerned, he hoped that no ofl'ense would 
be taken if deleg.ates having bu.'-iness to attm'^ 
to should leave to-night for tlieir homes. H'? 
regretted to hear the sentiments his frienil from 
'i'exas, Gov. Hamilton, had expressed. Texa.s 
had no firmer friends than the men who dwelf. 
on the Virginia hills, thousands of whom liad 
shed their blood in her defense, and it sounded 
harsh to hear men whom tliey had loved so well 
charge them with infidelity to her interests. II(> 
denied the charge. West Virginia h:id made a 
recortl for herself, and while they were grateful 
for tlin kindness with which they had been 
treated, yet they had e:tablished tfiemselvea an 
firm as the mountains tiiey iidiabited. Why 
could they not have good feeling? The unre- 
con.structe(l States had no warmer friends than 
he was. West Virgini i bade them (Jod speed 
They had meant no disr'-'pect in proposing te 



42 



go home. He would bid them God speed in their 
good work, hoping the time would come when 
they could take their place among the galaxy of 
States. In his place in the United States Senate 
he had supported negro suffrage. lie had no dis- 
position to retard it now, but, as the distinguish- 
ed Governor of Tennessee bad said, they had 
done their worst. They had no desire to em- 
barrass the loyal South by new issues, when a 
distinct issue was already made, and however 
much he desired impartial suffrage, it would be 
rash to imperil their success by raising a new 
issue now. 

MR. SHEUWOOD. 

Mr. Sherwood said that the Unionists of the 
far South had not finished the business that in- 
duced them to call this Convention together. 
They were compelled to make their platform on 
the Conslitutional Rights of the citizen. They 
were not so much in want of Constitutional 
iimendments as they were of Congressional 
legislation under the powers Congress now pos- 
sesses. These powers are ample to protect the 
rights of the citizen without any addition. They 
make their platform on these rights, and will 
promulgate their platform before they leave the 
<ity of Philadelphia. Thoy will insist that 
these rights are the paramount object of Gov- 
♦iiTiment. Planting themselves on the Constitu- 
tional rights of the citizen, the Southern Uaion- 
ists 

The President interrupted Mr. Sherwood, say- 
ing : There is nothing before the Convention. 

Gen. J. 11. Eaton, of Tennessee, offered the 
following resolution : 

Resolved, That the delegates from the non- 
reconstructed States make their report to this 
Convention, and that said report be published 
for the information of the country, with the pro- 
i-eedings of this Convention, but that all action 
<m said report be taken by the delegates from 
the non-reconstructed States. 

The resolution was adopted ; after which the 
Convention adjourned to the next day at 10 
■o'clock, A. M. 



Fifth Day. 
Pluladdphia, Friday, Sept. 7, 1866. 
The Convent ion assembled at lit o'clock, and 
was opened with prayer by the Chaplain, the 
Rev. Dr. Newman, of Louisiana. 

I'RAYER. 

The following dis^pateh was received, and read 
by the Secretary : 

BroimsviUe, Nebraska, Sept. 6, 1860. 
To the President of the Southern Loyal Union 

Convention, assembled in Philadelphia : 

Remlved, That we, the Republican Union 



Party of Nebraska, in convention assembled, 
send you our cordial greeting. 

D. H. WHEELER, 

Secretary of Convention. 

[Applause.] 

The following was also read : 

To the Members of the Convention of Loyal 

Unionists of the South: 

Gentlemen : — On behalf of the Union League 
of Philadelphia, I have the honor to request the 
pleasure of your company on an excursion along 
the river front of the city to the fleet of iron-clad 
vessels n«w lying at League Island. 

The excursion boat will leave Chestnut-street 
Wharf on Saturday morning, the 8th inst., at 
half-past ten o'clock, and return at one o'clock, 
punctually. 

I beg leave to add that the partial destruction 
of our building by fire will not interfere in any 
respect with the proceedings of the League as 
heretofore announced and contemplated. 

I have the honor to be, respectfully, 

CHARLES GIBBONS, 
Chairman Committee on Reception. 

Philadelphia, Sept. 7, 1866. 

On motion, the invitation was accepted. 

The following communication was also laid 
before the body by the Chairman : 

OJpce of State Grand Council of ) 
Pennsylvania, U. L. A., ) 

Philadelphia, Sept. 5th, 1866. 
At a meeting of the State Grand Council of 
Pennsylvania held this Any, the following reso- 
lution was unanimously adopted, to wit : 

Resolved hy the State Grand Council of Penn- 
sylvania, no7e in session in this city, to send greet- 
ing to our loyal brethren in convention assem- 
bled : That we bid them God speed, and pledge 
to them our earnest and hearty support in all 
such measures as they shall devise for the pre- 
servation and perpetuity of the Union. 

SAM'L F. GWINNER, 
Sec. Grand Com. of Pa., U. L. A. 

RESOLUTION OF THANKS. 
Mr. Nunes, of Kentucky, in view of the kind- 
ness and attention that the Convention had re- 
ceived from the Union Club and the Union 
League of Philadelphia, offered the following : 

Resolved, That this Convention tenders its pro- 
found thanks to the National Union Club and to 
the Union League of this city, for the kindness 
with which we have been treated by the Associ- 
ations which have so courteously and generously 
sought to supply our wants, and minister to our 
comfort and convenience. 

In offering this resolution he desired to state a 
fact, which he presumed, however, all the mem- 
bers of the Convention had already learned witJi 
deep regret, that the hall of the Union League 
was last night completely destroyed by the act 



43 



of an incendiary. Ho called attention to the 
signiticant language of President Johnson, re- 
cently used in a speech in front of the Conti- 
nental Hotel of this city, that "he wanted no 
leagues in the country." This calamity had fol- 
lowed. He would not say that the destruction 
was the result of that hinguage, hut the declara- 
tion was significant. The Union League, how- 
ever, did not dwell in a house made with liands, 
but in tlie hearts of the peopk', and no incendiary 
net could destroy it. [Applause.] 

The resolution was unaniniouslj* adopted. 

Mr. Butts, of Virginia, offered the following : 

Wliereas, The beautiful building belonging to 
the Union League of this city, in which we lune 
hiicjx so generously entertained, was destroyed 
by fire last night, be it 

Rasolved, That we hereby tender to the Loj-al 
I'nion League our heartfelt sj'mpathy in the loss 
they have sustained, and especially at this time 
when they were engaged in the struggle to pro- 
tect the life of the nation. 

Unanimously adopted. 

THANKS TO THE TRIBUXE AND IX- 
DEPEXDEXT. 

Mr. Bingham, of Alabama, offered the follow- 
ing:, 

RexoJvrd, That the firmness, ability and fidelity 
•with which The Xew York Tribune lias advo- 
"cated the cause of emancipation, the ])rinciples 
of civil liberty, the promotion of schools and edu- 
cational facilities of our Southern masses, our in- 
dustrial pursuits, and the development of their 
7iiaterial resources, in agricultural, mineral, man- 
ufacturing and commercial prosperity, commend 
it to our hearty approval. We therefore recom- 
mend it to the patriotic patronage of all loyal 
people in the Southern States. 

Mr. Mason, of Virginia, moved to amend by 
including The Xew York Independent. 

The amendment was accepted, and the resolu- 
tion unanimously adopted. 

PERSONAL COMMUXICA TIOX. 

A communication was read from Gen. A. A. C. 
Hodgers, of Kansas, informing the Convention 
tliat he had been compelled to leave for home ; 
that he had done the business for whicli he came, 
and was not prepared to go before the country 
on tlie question of negro suffrage. 

Mr. Markett. of Arkansas, said, that the State 
of Arkansas was still rejiresented in this Conven- 
tion. He liad never yet been contaminated by 
*' my policy," or by the policy of any one else. 
He claimed for himself no more than he was wil- 
ling to give to every other human being — eipial 
rignts. [Applause, and three cheers for Arkan- 
sas.] 

THANKS TO JUDGE UXDERWOOD. 
A Virginia delegate offered the followini^: 
Rrxiilvi-d, That tlie thanks of the Soutlicrn loy- 
alists arc due, and are hereby tendered, to the 



I Hon. J. C. Underwood f(jr his fearless discharge 
of duty in endeavoring to bring to justice the 
great head of the rebellion, Jeflferson Davis. 
[Applause.] 

SPEECH OK MR. COXWAY OF LOVISIANA. 

Jir. Conway, of Louisiana, said, that he con- 
sidered the resolution eminently proper. The 
President of the I'nited States, before he was 
exalted to that high office, declared, and the 
declaration received the amen of the loj-al heart 
of America, that treason should be made odious; 
but up to this day the promise had not been 
kept. To this day disloyalty had not, by that 
man, been made odious. Loyalty, instead of 
treason, had been made odious. To-day, in his 
pilgrimage to the West, he was doing all that he 
could to make the true loyalty of the South 
odious. [Applause.] Andrew Johnson, that 
once said in his hearing that he owed Tennessee 
a debt, and that it could not be paid in better 
way than by hanging rebels. Yet the only man 
who had been squarely hung for treason in this 
land had been hung bj- Benj. F. Butler. [Cheers 
for Gen. Butler] Treason was to-day seething 
in the hearts of the people of the South. "When 
he was commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau 
in Louisiana he had a thorough detective sj-s- 
tem, and through it he had discovered a large 
number of secret organizations in the South, or- 
ganized for the advanced purpose of destroying 
this government, sooner or later. This Conven- 
tion had met for the purpose — neglected bj' the 
President, but determined to be accomplished by 
the people — of making treason odious. [Great 
applause.] Treason was already odious in the 
hearts of all loyal people, but respectable in the 
hearts of copperheads and traitors. This Con- 
vention must settle the question whether loynltj- 
was to be allowed in the South, or whether the 
policy should crush it out entirely. This was a 
dark daj' for the loyal men of the South, because 
of the action of the Pre.-ident and Cabinet ; but 
there was a glorious sunlight coming from the 
people. Even some of the delegates to this 
Convention had apiteared to be afraid of that 
sunlight. In traveling through the different 
States he had found that the people were ad- 
vancing in lovalty, but that the politicians were 
where they were in 18<>1. The jjeojile at heart 
were honest, and loved (Jod, and truth, and lib- 
erty. The people wanted treason made odii-us. 
The people denuinded in God's name and in the 
name of the <'onstitution of the country, that 
Jefferson Davis be hung by the neck until he 
was dead. 

A second reading of the resolution was called 
for, and allowed. 

akhrkss ok jir. hart, ok kloriha. 
Mr. Hart (Florida): Mr. President, this is the 
first time 1 have risen to address this Conven- 
tion. We are asscmMed here as loyal men of 
the South — as men wlio have suffered. But 1 
know there are a great many faithful and patri- 



u 



otic men here who have suffered more than I 
liave. Yet, as one of them, I am bound by a 
common sympathy to the noble cause in which 
we are engaged. No man is more willing, there- 
fore, than I am that " treason should be made 
odious," and I will say that the edicts of Jeffer- 
son Davis, issued during the war, pierced my 
heart as deejily as anything possibly could. In 
)ny humble efforts, I am anxious, I am deter- 
mined, that it shall be made odious. That loy- 
alty which actuates the North, and lives in our 
breasts, demands it. The same verdict comes 
from the East and also from the West. When 
President Johnson fmnounced that doctrine, it 
was endorsed in its length and breadth by all 
pati'iotic men. But he has to our amazement, 
departed from it. lie has abandoned that sen- 
timent of justice to which the loyal heart still 
clings, and which it is resolved shall be carried 
to a triumphant issue. Sir, in regard to this re- 
solution, in my heart I approve it ; but let us 
take counsel like magnanimous men. The first 
part of it has reference to Judge Underwood. I 
honor him. The calumnies uttered against him 
by the late Confeder.ate press liave made no 
other impression on my mind than to increase 
my admiration for his undaunted loyalty. [Ap- 
plause.] But it is proper for us to say what is 
the course the judicial tribunals should pursue ? 
The law is intended for that, and the loyaltj- of 
the people will see to its execution. It is an Im- 
portant theory in our government that discour- 
ages judges from taking a pai't in those political 
questions which would sway their decisions one 
way or the other. It seems to us, friends and 
brethren, that it matters not to the common 
cause for which we have suffered and which we 
love, what may be the fate of an individual un- 
der the law. Treason is now odious, and it will 
forever be odious ; aud if any one suffers the 
punishment due to his crimes, it will be consid- 
ered according to the theorj'^ of the law of the 
land, not as infliction upon an individual, but for 
the great moral influence of the example. Let 
the law take its course. He is now where he 
should be — in the hands of the officers ol^justice. 
It seems to me, then, as he is in prison, in the 
liands of the law, that we should be silent about 
it. If we, the loyal Union men of the South in 
convention assembled, use any language of this 
kind toward any of those who have been en- 
gaged and in that odious cause, while the}' are 
in prison, it would appear that we are giving a 
biased construction to the laws of the country. 
I trust that we shall set an example of magna- 
nimity, which I know reigns supreme in the 
hearts of all loyal men. [Applause.] I am sat- 
isfied that the heart of him who offered this re- 
solution is right, to which mine accords upon 
all these great questions. But it is better, in my 
opinion, for us not to do this thing, that we 
should rather set an example of magnanimity. 
Let him stay where he now is. [Applause.] 

MR. JEXEXTS, OF VIRGIXI.V. 

Mr. Jenents (Virginia) said, the gentleman 



who had spoken did not understand the circum' 
stances whicli prompted that resolution. Scur- 
rilous attacks had been made by the papers of 
his town upon the dek'gates to this Convention, 
charging them as men of no respectability and 
of no character. An especial allusion to Judge 
Underwood was ipade in connection with us, and 
infamous attacks on the grand jury that found 
the indictment against Jefferson Davis. His 
name was mentioned in the category upon whom 
they cast their abuse. lie was born and bred in 
the South, and always labored to maintain an 
unblemished character. His only crime was in 
meeting the rebels face to face, and expressing 
his opinions fearlessly, and on all occasions. 
[Applause.] When tlie articles he referred to 
appeared in the papers, he endeavored to con- 
tradict them, and to set himself and the othen 
right. But they refused him the opportunitj-, 
stating such a thing would be disgracing their 
sheets. As he was thus unable to place these 
free and loyal men in a proper light before the 
people there, he wanted it done here, where they 
could see it in a free and untrarameled press 
He wanted the people of the South to understand 
the true facts of the case when they met the 
rebels face to face, and place themselves in the 
proper position. [Applause.] 

MR. SIDXKY, OF MISSISSIPPI. 

Mr. Sidney (Miss.) : As a member from Missis- 
sippi he wanted cordially to indorse that resolu- 
tion. In 184(5 he was a soldier in arms, who 
fought through the war beside Jefferson Davis. 
But he now stands convicted before the bar of 
the people of treason ; he is a traitor before the 
law. [Applause.] When the tocsin of war was 
sounded in 1861, he hastened to the front of the 
Union army, and claimed the right to s:>rve his 
country. Those present who knew him could 
testify to that. He hated treason and all those 
in whom it found a place. Still he admitted he 
would not be a fit juryman to sit upon the case of 
Jefferson Davis, for he would hang him without 
trial. [Applause.] He wanted expression upon 
ever}- subject properly submitted to this body. 
He indorsed the resolution, aud j^ressed it for ac- 
tion upon those assembled. 

GOV. n.^MILTON. 

Governor A. J. Hamilton said, the vindication 
of liberty and outraged law demanded that jus- 
tice should overtake the leaders in the late re- 
bellion. But they did not assemble to waste 
time upon Jefferson Davis, an individual. He 
thought they could leave the proper tribunals to 
discharge their duty in his case. If they failed, 
then it would be time enough to call upon them 
to perform their sworn office. [Applause.] He 
did not desire to get up a controversy then. He 
asked members to reflect for a moment on that 
matter, and he trusted the resolution would be 
laid upon the table. As no motion had been 
made to that effect, he made it now. He would 
not, however, be understood as casting a rcflec- 



45 



tion on Jiuli^e Underwood. No one could admire 
his finnuejis and heroism in the discharge of his 
duty more tlian himself. 

MR. FERNANDEZ, OF LOCISH.NA. 

Mr. Firnandez (La.) said, it had not been his 
intention to address this t'nnvention, but lie 
would say that this w;is not a tribunal of justice. 
They came here to transact more important 
business than to pass resolutions about Jeff. 
Davis, or any other traitor. He had been told 
from childhood that the riirhts of the prisoner 
should be respected until he had been tried, and 
that he should be considered innocent until 
proven to be LCinlty. This was the spirit of 
American law, and, he thought, was the spirit of 
law throughout the world. 

Mr. Clements withdrew the resolution. 

'THE CONTEMPLATED VISIT TO XEW 
YORK. 

(\<i\. Hamilton, as chairman of the Committee 
appointed to respond to the invitation to the 
Convention by the Union League of New York, 
to visit the city of New York, asked that the 
Committee be discharged. It was impossible to 
Pay when the delegates in a body could visit 
New York, and therefore the Secretary of the ! 
Union League shoidd be informed of that fact, | 
and the delegates could severally determine for 
themselves whether to go or not. 

The President said, that the Committee, failing 
to report, were of course discharged. 

(ien. J. IL Eaton, of Tennessee, offered the 
following : 

Resolved, That we recognize the vital import- 
ance of a free, independent press in the ortratiiza- 
tion of States and society in the South, and that 
we giv<' our united support to those papers in our 
midst that arc fearless in the advocacy of equal 
justice, and suggest to our friends in the North 
that this support is essential to our defense. 

The mover said it was an excellent thing for 
the loyal citizens of Philaddpliia to extend to 
them the glorious reception they had enjoyed, 
but it was a more glorious thing to strengthen 
the press of the South, that L'nion sentiments 
iniijht be advocated with coin-age and persistency. 
The press sliould recrive business supj)ort and 
subscriptions of the loyal men of the North, tliat 
they may have a chance to do their best. In 
Misriissi])]ii there is only one \oya\ j)aper; in 
Aialiama but three. These are so cowed down 
and feebly sup])orted that their hands are crip- 
pled in every effort. Unless the Northern loyal 
men felt tlie necessity of sustaining these Cnion 
papers, these true men and women of the South 
could not remain in their homes alive. 

rien. Katon called for the reading of the reso- 
lution recommending the necessity for suii]Hirt- 
ing the loyal newspapers of the South. After 
the reading, he said : 

In moving the adf)ption of that resolution, I 
do it with a deep conviction of its necessity, 



believing that it will be instrumental iu sustain- 
ing the Ireeuom of the press in the South, whicli. 
next to freedom of speech, is the great privilege 
that you must have if you are to live in tJic 
South. Look at the disloyal sentiment of tin- 
country, and mark how few are tiie outspoken 
newspajiers. The}- have a religious weekly 
which speaks boldly out, edited by our Chaplain 
(Dr. Newman). They have also a daily, edited 
and managed by the negroes — the only loyal 
dail}- in that section of the country. [Applause. 
A voice — "The Xcw-Orlcam Jn/jiote."] The 
New-Orleam Trihrne. [Applause.] The editor 
of tliat paper called upon me at Memphis, ami 
said that day after day, when returning home 
from his ofliee, he had been fired at by the way. 
This is the freedom of the j)ress enjoyed iu the 
South, reconstructed by "my po'lie^'l" You 
know that without freedom of opinion, liberty 
goes down ; and you know that freedom of opin- 
ion is impossible where freedom of speech is not 
enjoyed, and that free expression is essential to 
freedom of opinion and freedom of speech. 
Now, gentlemen, I say, sustain those papers, if 
you would extend your aid to the men who have 
been persecuted, and who remain there, perhaps, 
to become martyrs, as others have in the Pebel 
States. It is an excellent thing to extend to 
them your support and confidence; but I tell 
^you it is a more practical thing, meeting a more 
immediate necessity, to give them the support 
of freedom of opinion, peace, and success in 
their own homes. Gen. Eaton continued by 
hopina: tliey would extend tiieir aid and theiV 
subscriptions to that end. In Alabama ther'.- 
was but one loyal ))aper. The XadonalUt, of 
Mobile, supported prineipall}- by the negro pop;:- 
lation. [Applause.) Its excellent editor, whose 
earnestness they knew, was on this floor, Capt. 
D. 11. Bingham. In (jieorijia there was but one. 
[A voice—" Three."] He was glad to stand 
corrected. It was a sad fact tliat while Ihey en- 
deavored to exchanire with all loyal papers in 
the South, they were so C(jwed down by th.- 
Rebels that it was impossible to get them all. 

Col. Nunes, of Kentucky, rose to a question 
of privilege. lie had understood that the first 
business of the Convention this morning was to 
hear the rejjort of the Committee on Ui:reco:i- 
structed States. 

Gen. Eaton recognized the importance of tb^s 
report, and. after repeating his opinion cf the 
importance of sustaining freedom of e.v^rcEsiou 
in the South, gave way. 

The resolution was adopted. 

On motion of Mr. (J. W. Ashburn, of (ieorgiu, 
the following was adopted : 

lir/tolrtvf. That we recognize the Ix)i/iil (!rorgii:i>, 
published at Augusta, Ca., and l!ie America. i 
Union, published at (JrifHn, Ga., as Union papers 
that are true to the cause of Freedom, Union, 
and Humanity, notwithstanding powerful opposi- 
tion. 

General Warmouth, of Louisiana, from the 
Committee to whom was referred the resolution 



46 



of Judge Hiestand, on the subject of the recent 
massacre in New Orleans, reported the following 
preamble and resolution : 

Whereas, The only official report of the New 
Orleans massacre as yet published is that of the 
grand jury of the Criminal Court of New Orleans ; 
and the account given by Mayor ilonroe, Lieut.- 
Governor Voorhees, and Attorney-General Her- 
ron is an ex parte document, prepared by the in- 
stigators of the massacre, participants in it, and 
sympathizers with it ; and 

Whereas, It is very important that a true 
statement of all the facts regarding that bloody 
and disgraceful event should be placed before 
the country, and the responsibility fixed on the 
guilty parties ; and 

Whereas, The military commission appointed 
by General Baird has made a thorough and im- 
partial investigation, examining witnesses on 
both sides, and rejecting no evidence which 
might have a bearing on that case ; therefore 
be it 

Resolved, That the President of the United 
States be requested to cause the publication of 
said report. 

The report was adopted. 

PRESIDENT SPEED RELIiVQ iriSHES 
THE CHAIR TO JOHN MINOR BOTTS. 

At this point, the Chairman of the Convention, 
Hon. James Speed, of Kentucky, addressed the 
body as follows : 

Gentlemen of the Convention: — I have stayed 
with you thus long for the purpose of seeing the 
business finished ; but business of the utmost 
importance calls me elsewhere. I take my leave 
of you with regret. It was distinctly under- 
stood, I believe, by every member, that in the 
matter of the report from the Committee on the 
Unreconstructed States, action was to be taken 
only by the representatives on this floor from 
those unreconstructed States. I thank the Con- 
vention most cordially for the order which it 
has maintained. I trust that our labors have 
been well done ; and I believe — from the light- 
ning flashes that we have seen from one end of 
this continent to the other, from California and 
all over the country — and I feel that we have 
not assembled in vain. 

The Convention unanimously rose and gave 
three cheers for the retiring Chairman, who 
then left the pl.atform and the Convention. 

The Hon. John Minor Botts then assumed the 
duties of President of the Convention. 

The Hon. II. C. Warmouth, of Louisiana, then 
read -the 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON UN- 
RECONSTRUCTED STATES. 
The Committee on Non-reconstructed States 
have the honor to submit the following report 
on the social and political status of the loyalists 
of such States, together with their needs and 
requirements. « 



Previous to the war for sectional disunion, the 
patriotic traditions, the social pride, the indi- 
vidual interests and the religious and educational 
influences of the South were identified and 
closely allied with the American Union. The 
patriotic instances of the overwhelming majority 
of the Southern people, without regard to 
condition in life, were in harmony with these 
elements. There were social bonds extending 
from Maine to California, and ties of interest 
and consanguinity ramifying every fibre of the 
Republic and embracing every hearthstone and 
altar in the land. Those who meditated treason 
were forced by this patriotic sentiment to put on 
the livery of republicanism to serve monarchy 
in the disunion. Plotters, for instance!, declared 
they held to the dogma of State rights because 
its vindication was the only means by which to 
conserve American nationahty. They sought to 
check the Federal instincts of the American 
peojile by declaiming against what they termed 
the anti-Republican character of a strong, all- 
sufficient national Government. Thirty years 
of ceaseless agitation and political intrigue 
failed to dissever the bonds of a common 
country. Those who secretly worked for the 
overthrow of American institutions say at last 
that the South must have new social, political 
and military traditions. That the name of 
Washington and the deeds of Bunker Hill must 
be obliterated by blood before the final work of 
Southern independence can be achieved. A 
pretext for war was sought, and the Gulf States 
precipitated into revolution. In the early stages 
of that revolution the necessities of the con- 
spirators compelled them to keep up the pretext 
of patriotism until the madness and bloodshed, 
born of actual civil strife, should place the 
liberties of persons and property of the Southern 
people within their control. At the proper 
moment force was substituted for fraud, the 
long-concealed and bloody purpose of sectional 
disunion, per se, was openly declared, with 
human slavery as its corner-stone. The pride of 
men once committed to the cause, the thirst for 
military glory, or the mere love of military 
adventure, the suddenly aroused and unthinking 
impulse of woman, the new sympathies, new 
resentments, new hopes and new traditions 
springing inevitably from a state of war, were 
coldly calculated upon and deliberately divided 
for the accomplishment of the traitors' purpose. 
After four years of bloody strife, the first phase 
of the contest closed by the surrender of Lee to 
Grant. The termination of the bloody conflict 
found the people of the South crushed to the 
earth by the two-fold influence of military 
defeat and a long reign of military despotism, ' 
wielded by the diplomatist with a selfishness 
and ferocity unparalleled in the history of 
political crime. Freed by the Union arms from 
their tyrants, our unfortunate countrj^men were 
once more, as freemen, face to face with the 
authors of their misery. They had seen every 
pledge made to them violated, every principle 



47 



or pretext of principle trampled under foot ; 
they saw around them tlie desolation which i»ad 
been wrou-jht in tlie interests of a selfish aris- 
tocracy, and they returned to their ruined liomos 
and decimated families, leavin;jf the authors uf 
all their woes to pay the penalties of their 
crimes and receive as they deserved the execration 
of mankind. Should the jjcople of the South, 
under the influence and j:jui<lancc of the loyal 
men, return to the ancient traditions of their 
fathers and reorganize loyal society in the 
interest of American nationality and repub- 
lican liberty, or should they, under the guidance 
and influence of the traitors who but lately 
ruled over them, be confirmed in the prejudices 
and traditions of disunion? This was the 
inquiry which at the close of the war sjjrung 
spontaneously from the mind of every lover of 
his country. Upon its decision depended the 
question whether the North or the South had 
lought in vain. When the armies of the United 
^tates compelled the surrender of these rebel 
fforces, and the insurgents returned to their 
^homes.the patriots of the South welcomed them 
back in the spirit of forgiveness and brotherl}- 
love. Their houses were thrown open to them, 
and in the hour of reunion they overlooked their 
great crimes and endeavored to heal the wounds 
of injured pride and unsuccessful ambition. 
The first question they asked themselves was 
this: " What will the Government do with usV" 
It was the general anticipation among them 
that, having revolted against the Government, 
having fought for four years to establish an 
independent government, the United States, in 
justice to hundreds of thousunds of noble, patri- 
otic soldiers, who had died for their countr\- — 
in justice to the loyal n)en of the South, and in 
justice to its violated laws — would impose such 
penalties on the leaders of the Rebellion as 
would jirevent them from assuming to control 
by administration, direction or voice, the gov- 
ernment of the insurrectionary States, with the 
full knowledge of the issues which they them- 
selves had deliberately made; compelling the 
Government to join issue, with arms in its own 
defense; and having, after a long bloody trial, 
been utterly defeated and overthrown, they 
were conscious of their own unworthiness to 
participate in the work of reconstruction. In- 
deed, judged by the code under which they had 
governed during the Rebellion, they had cause 
to tremble for fear of confiscation of j)ropi-rty 
and banishment. In this they were coutirmed, 
and their fears intensified, when, by the assas- 
sination of President Lincoln, Mr. Johnson 
(whose pledges to the country that treason 
should be made odious and traitors punished) 
became the K.xecutive of the nation, their fears 
were relieved, and their depression turni<l to 
the feeling of exultation and triumph when the 
North Carolina proclamation developed the I'rcs- 
ident's policy. From that hour the question, 
" What will the (government do with us?" was 
no longer asked, but they at once began to 
deliberate what they would do with the Gov- 



erunicnt. The anxious question of parriotrgm 
as to who should guide the work of loj'al 
reconstruction was answered also. The question 
with them, uttered with whispering lips and 
beating hearts, was " What will tho ilisunionists 
do with us?" The [)ress of the South, owned 
and controlled by leaders of armies, divisions, 
brigades and regiments of the Rebel service, 
and by the inmiediate political adherents of Jef:. 
Davis, with significant and staitling unanimity, 
su]>ported the executive plan. The ruling ideas 
and representative men of the loyal nation were 
attacked with renewed revolutionary violence — 
the American Congress denounced as Rump, 
acting without authority. The policy of tlu^ 
I're-ident, backed by his greiit patronage and 
increased power, assured them in the hope of 
being placed in absolute power in their States 
and restored ultimatelj- to their merited influent i^ 
in the national Legislature. Those who had 
remained faithful in their allegiance were de- 
nounced as traitors and as unworthy- the confi- 
dence or respect of the country, and those who 
did not indorse the Executive policy were 
persecuted in the name of the President, with 
the added malice of unsuccessful revolution. 
The Executive, Legislative, and Judicial office-? 
of the States filled with ex-Rel'el ofiicers of high 
position and rank, elevated in consideration cf 
services rendered and sacrifices for the Confed- 
eracy, burning under the efi'ect of recent defea', 
produced in great measure by the loyalists of 
the South, launched fit them every sl-.aft cf 
persecution and intolerance. Almost every - 
Union man, mIio by appointment or otherwisj^ 
held office or place, has been summarilj- removed 
to give place to mm who had distinguished 
themselves in the Confederate service ; and so 
anxious and determined were they in removing 
every element of power from Union men that 
forms of law were disregarded. State officers in 
Louisiana, for instance, upon the most flimsy 
pretext, were superseded by illegal appointment 
and ejected by force without trial or forms of 
law. The Legislatures vent their indignation on 
the colored people by the enactment of what 
are kindly termed "labor laws," which an 
absolutely maintain Shivery, with the exception 
of buying and selling the peojjle, as the previous 
enactments for that purpose. As an instance, 
the laws passed by some of our legislatures 
provide that all persons engaged in agricultural 
pursuits as laljorers shall be required during the 
first ten daj's of the month of January of each 
year to make contracts for the ensuing year, and 
m case of failure such laborer shall be arrested 
by the civil authorities and hired out; and 
however mueli the laborer may be dissatisfied, 
he dare not \ravi under the penalty of being 
apprehended and forced to labor upon the publii- 
works, without compensation, until he will 
consent to return to his employer. It is punished 
with fine and imprisonmenli to entice or persuade 
awaj', feed, harbor or secrete any such laborer. 
In this way thej' are compelled to contract 
within a limit of ten dnyj, punislied by legal 



48 



•enslaremcnt for violating a simple contract, and 
prevented from obtaining sl\elter, food and 
employment. By severest penalties he has 
been made a serf in the name of freedom, and 
suffers all the evils of the institution of Slavery, 
without receiving that care which the master, 
from a sense of his own interest, would give to 
his bondsmen. By tlie act of some of our 
legislatures, it is made a trespass for any man 
to enter upon the plantation of another without 
the consent of the owner or agent, and punisha- 
ble with tine and imprisonment. The object of 
this law is evidently to prevent laborers from 
leaving the plantations upon wliich they are 
compelled to engage. It is also made lawful for 
the employer to fine and punish this employe 
for failing to labor to suit the employer or 
disobey any orders. The interpretation of laws 
and decisions by the courts has been characterized 
by the same unwholesome and intolerant spirit. 
The laws passed in the days of Slavery for its 
protection are enforced with the same exactness 
to-day as ten years ago. Citizens have been 
arrested on the charge of having told negroes 
that they were rightfully entitled to vote ; 
thrown into prison, retained for months, tried 
by a judge, without a jury, refused time to send 
for witnesses or counsel, convicted and sen- 
tenced to punishment in the Penitentiary. There 
is no redress of any grievances or atrocities 
perpetrated upon Union men, or deserters from 
the rebel armies during the war. It is even 
necessary to plead special orders from a Confed- 
erate officer, for it is said that all citizens 
belonged by law to the militia, and, as both the 
State and Confederate Governments had repeat- 
edly ordered the militia to apprehend deserters 
at any time or pjlace, it is held that the acts 
passed to screen Confederate officers and soldiers 
from the consequences of acts committed in 
obedience to orders covers all acts committed 
against deserters or conscripts in the attempt of 
apprehension. As against Union men, however, 
the law is strictly construed by the courts. 
The slightest infraction by a conscript in flying 
to our lines, or by a deserter starving in his 
cave, is sure to meet with speed}' judicial retri- 
bution. Did a man resist a conscript officer to 
the death, it is murder. Did a conscript officer 
arrest women and children and keep them for 
forty hours in a fierce storm without food and 
subjected to the grossest indignities and violence, 
producing the death of some and periling the 
lives of others, " it is done in obedience to 
military authority," and the rebel goes unpun- 
ished. In short, in all act'ons where cause 
occurred during the war there is plenty of law 
against the Union man, but none for him. In 
causes occurring at the present time the fierce 
hatred of the men who were right, while 
disunionists were wrong, is sufficient to prevent 
them passing the triple guard with whiL-h 
treason has surrounded her temple of injustice, 
viz., disloyal magistrates, disloyal grand juries, 
disloyal petit juries, to say nothing of the 



disloyal agencies of Government. Union mc^ 
are ostracised and prescribed socially in most 
parts of the South. Soldiers of the Union 
army are compelled in many cases to discard 
the blue which they have worn with honor in 
order to protect themselves from insult and 
violence. Ministers of the Gospel are silenced 
and excommunicated from the churches on 
account of their constant and steadfast loyalty 
to the Republic. Disloyal men have military 
associations which are known in Virginia as the 
Legion of Honor — in South Carolina and Louis- 
iana as relief societies — all of them composed 
of Confederate soldiers, and presided over and 
controlled by their former leaders and chieftains, 
and used for the purpose of fostering the animus 
of resistance to our Government and keeping 
alive the hope of Southern independence. 
Their object is to monopolize all places of trust 
and power, preserve the exclusiveness of the 
South, and at the proper time, when some 
hoped-for feud may divide the people of the 
North, it will again throw its sword in the 
scale and achieve her long-cherished disunion 
purpose. Loyal men are taunted and threatened 
in private and denounced in public assemblages. 
Bowed down and crushed by the foul spirit of a 
prevailing and clamorous disloyal population, 
many of our people are selling their estates for 
whatever they can get to procure money to 
enable vheni to leave and come North. During 
the continuance of the war, rebels feared that 
punishment would be meted out to them for the 
wrong done to Union men should they fail ,-ti 
their object. This fear was a protection, es- 
pecially during 1863 and 1864. Now, even this J 
guarantee is taken away; for our persecutors ^; 
are the vicegerents of the national power at the 
South. The Union man is discarded and abjured. 
He has to look forward to a life of continual 
persecution for himself and serfdom for his 
children. The free North offers the only refuge. 
Without protection for the present and future, 
there is no hope but in exile. 

The strongest evidence of the intolerance of 
the disunionists is lately given in the action of 
the civil authorities of the City of New Orleans 
toward a convention composed of gentlemen of 
known loyalty- On the 80th of July last, in 
pursuance of a proclamation of Rufus K. Howell, 
one of the judges of the Supreme Court of 
Louisiana, the Convention which framed the 
organic law under which the Civil Government 
of Louisiana assumed to act, and which ad- 
journed subject to call of its president, met at 
the Capitol of the • State, in the City of New 
Orleans. From the time of the Governor's 
request for the Convention to reassemble, the 
press of the city, owned and controlled by 
ex-generals and colonels and othi r officers of 
the rebel army, and by those in sympathy with 
them, attacked with the greatest violence the 
Convention as a body, and members as individ- 
ua.ls, descending to most violent and abusive 
language, for the purpose of influencing^ the 



49 



Tninds of returned rebel soldiery and their 
adherents against the Convention and its mem- 
bers. 

Public meetings were held in the city, at 
which the most violent and incendiary speeches 
were made against the assembling of the Con- 
vention. The Mayor of the city,\v means of 
his police, put in circulation the report of his 
dotermi nation to suppress that body if it should 
attempt to meet in the City of New Orleans. 
The Judge of the Criminal Court made a charge 
to the Grand Jury, in which he discussed and 
indorsed the policy of Andrew Johnson, and 
instructed them to find bills of indictment 
against those gentlemen who should respond to 
the call of the President of the Convention and 
the Governor of the State. Having thus inflamed 
the public mind against the Convention by every 
means in his power, and invoked the aid of a 
corrupt Judge and a disloyal Grand Jury, thi> 
foreman of which was an ex-colonel of the rebel 
army, the Mayor of the city addressed a letter 
to Major-General Baird, commanding the De- 
partment of Louisiana, in which he used the 
following language: "It is my intention to 
lUsperse this xmlawful assembly if found within 
corporate limits of the cit}% provided they meet 
without the sanction of the military authorities." 
Thus claiming the authority as Mayor of the 
city to pass upon the legality of a convention 
which had made the government under which 
he held hi3 office and whose Constitution he had 
sworn to support, and claiming the ri^ht and as- 
serting his determination to disperse it in case it 
should be found within the corporate limits of 
the cit}-. 

It would be supposed, after the able and 
manly reply of (Jeneral Baird to this letter, 
that the determination officially expressed would 
not have been further contemplated. That offi- 
cer, after having informed the Mayor tb.nt the 
Convention had not asked for any such authority 
or sanction, and when asked " If I intended to 
furnish the Convention with a military guard, I 
have replied, 'No; the Mayor of the city with 
his police will amply protect its sitting.' 

" If these persons as.semble, as you say is intend- 
ed, it will be, I presume, in virtue of the univer- 
eally conceded right of all loyal citizens of the 
United States to meet peaceably and discuss 
freely questions concerning their civil govern- 
ments, a right which is not restricted by the fact 
that the movement propos'^d might terminate in 
a change of existing institutions. If the assem- 
blage in question has the legal right to remodel 
the State Government it should be protected in 
BO doing. If it has not, then its labors must be 
looked upon as a harmless jdeasantry to which 
no one ought to object. As to your conception 
of the duty im)>osed by your oath of office, I re- 
gret to differ with you entirely. I cannot under- 
stand liow the Mayor of a city can undertake to 
decide so imporlnnt and delicate a question ;is 
the legal autliotity upon which a Convciitioii 
claiming to represent the pcojjiu of an entire 
State bases its action." 

7 



Your Committee are informed that this reply 
I of Gen. l>aird, was the cause of a personal inter- 
I view between the Lieutenant-Governor and the 
General, when it was agreed tiiat whatever wai-- 
raiit of arrest might be issued should be submiL- 
I ted to him before any attempt was made to have 
it executed, and that upon the indorsen)ent of 
I the General's objections, the matter should be 
I referred to the President of the United States 
I for his action. This fact being known, produceil 
a feeling of securitj' on the part of the members 
I of the Convention, and on the morning of the 
j 30th of July, appeared a proclamation of the 
i Mayor requesting the people to remain away 
1 from the Convention that peace and order might 
1 be preserved ; it was believed at the time that 
this was issued with the sincere desire to pre- 
serve the peace, but the scfjuel will show that it 
, was only a mantle to cover the real design. Ai 
i 12 o'clock the night before the police were with- 
drawn from their beats, and assembled at their 
respective station-houses ; and, besides the 
weapons usually used by policemen, each was 
given a large-sized navy revolver. Thus armed, 
i they were held at the station-houses to await 
i orders. In addition to these measures others had 
been taken by Harry T. Hays, Sheriff of the 
Parish of Orleans, and one ex-General of the 
Rebel array, pardoned by the President to enable 
him to assume that office, he had reorganized a 
portion of his old brigade as deputy sheriffs, and 
they were ordered to be in readiness on that oc- 
casion. They were doubly armed with revolvers, 
and prepared to act ■with all the efficiency of 
military discipline. From early in the morning 
the streets of Now Orleans were unusually crowd- 
ed ; the Union men were assembling in the Con- 
vention hall, and many were in the street In 
front of the building, at the corner of Dryades 
Street and Canal, were stationed a large number 
of yoimg men, in citizen's dress, recognized as 
members of Rebel military organizations, evi- 
dently waiting for the signal of attack, and whose 
subsequent conduct proves conclusively that they, 
too, were armed and stationed there for a bloody 
purpose. At 12 o'clock the Convention met, and 
afrer a short session adjourned for one hour, to 
give time for the absent members to appear. 
Your Committee arc informed that it was the in- 
tention of the metiibers of the Convention to re- 
cord the names of those who might be present 
during fhe day and to then adjourn until a day 
subsequent to the elections, to fill the vacancies 
which were already ordered by the Governor of 
the State. Near one o'clock the bells of the city 
tolled ft signal, and the police, joined by hun- 
dreds of returned Rebel soldiers in citizen's 
dress, attacked, without any provocation, the 
people collected in front of the Capitol ; thej' 
being mostly unarmed, were forced to retreat. 
Met uy another l)ody of police and citizens, they 
were compelled to subm't to unheard of and un- 
paralleled butchery. The street in frf)nt of t)ie 
Capitol being thus cleared, an attack was made 
upon the hall wheio the convention had assembled. 
The members and audience were found seated 



50 



in accordance with the request of the Rev. Mr. 
Horton, Dr. A. P. Dostie, and others. Without 
any attempt at arrest, without one word of provo- 
cation, the assaihints opened upon them a volley. 
Driven back upon the walls, with no means of 
escape, and with dead and wounded men all 
around them, their offers of surrender answered 
by pistol shots, the besieged, in their despera- 
tion, seized the chairs of the hall, drove their 
assailants, who had by this time emptied their 
revolvers, from the room. These attacks were 
repeated until every man had been either killed 
or wounded, or had effected his escape. While 
this was going' on, in the streets of the city for 
several squares around the building was a scene 
of carnage, and whoever was seen with a dusky 
skin or of well-known loj^alty by any of the city 
officials or by their supporters, the Union-hating 
mob, was either killed or wounded ; every bearer 
of a flag of truce from the hall of the Convention 
was met with wounds and death. Many of the 
■v-ictims after being murdered, were subjected 
to the most brutal lacerations and indignities. 
It is a fact, worthy of notice, that the mob was 
not an ordinary one. It was not composed of 
the dregs of the populace, but of men who claimed 
to be and are regarded as the most respectable 
citizens of New Orleans. Men of high standing 
in the communities were there, some dressed as 
policemen, and some as firemen, while others, 
without any attempt at disguise, were openly 
using their influence to excite the masses to still 
greater fury. The instances of brutality charac- 
terizing this revolting massacre, are too many 
and too horrible to recite in a document of this 
kind, but the history of the age in no land, civil- 
ized and uncivilized, will narrate a tale more 
merciless, improvoked, and unnecessary blood- 
shed. It was the expressed intention of Gen. 
Baird to have the United States troops in close 
proximity to the Capitol in order that the public 
peace might be preserved. This intention had 
been communicated by him to the Lieutenant- 
Governor, who, without authority, and in con- 
tempt of the Governor of the State, assumed to 
confer with the General on the course to be pur- 
sued. This official, when informed of the Gen- 
eral's design, took occasion to tell him that the 
Convention would meet at 6 o'clock in the eve- 
ning, knowing well that the hour fixed upon was 
12 o'clock M. Thus deceived. Gen. Baird was 
surprised to learn when the reports of the mas- 
sacre were carried to him that the Convention 
had met at 12 o'clock and had adjourned. All 
the circumstances connnected with this tragic 
event, the expressed intention of the Mayor to 
disperse the Convention unless it met with the 
sanction of the military authorities, the with- 
drawal of the police from their beats in the city 
12 hours before that appointed for assembling of 
the Convention, the arming of them with re- 
volvers, the signal given at 1 o'clock, and the 
prompt arrival of all the police of the city, in- 
cluding 600 or VOO special policemen sworn in 
for the occasion, the presence of the Mayor dur- 
ing the tumult, the deception practiced by the 



Lieutenant-Governor to keep troops out of th< 
city, all clearly prove that the bloody tragedy 
was, as Gen. Sheridan states, "a premeditated 
massacre." And from the brutal manner in 
which over four hundred Union men were killed 
and wounded, from the fact that not one single 
policeman or jiarticipant in the murderous affair 
has been arrested, from the fact that the same 
men whose hands are yet red with the blood of 
the patriot soldiers of the Republic, and crim- 
soned anew in that of the martjTs of the 30th 
of July, are still retained in office and power in 
that city, it is clear that there is no security for 
the lives, the liberty or property of loyal citi- 
zens. It is a part of the history of this massacre 
that indictments were found by the Grand Jury 
of the parish, composed of ex-llebel soldiers and 
their sympathizers, against the survivors of the 
Convention, for having disturbed the peace of 
the community, and that, to day, many of them 
are under heavy bonds to appear and answer 
the charge ; nor did this seem to satisfy the 
judge of the Criminal Court, for the grand jury 
was brought before him on the following day 
and instructed to find bills of indictment against 
the members of the Convention and spectators, 
charging them with murder, giving the princi- 
ple in law, and applying it in this case, that who- 
ever is engaged in an unlawful proceeding from 
which death ensues to a human being, is guilty 
of murder, and alleging that as the Convention 
had no right to meet, and the police had killed 
many men on the day of its meeting, the sur- 
vivors were therefore guily of murder. 

The state of affairs which led to the massacre, 
is believed to be the legitimate result of the re- 
construction policy of Andrew Johnson ; for it 
is an indisputable fact that upon the reception 
of Gen. Baird's reply to Mayor Monroe, a dele- 
gation was sent to Washington to confer with 
the President of the United States, and that after 
the conference with that functionary a dispatch 
was sent to New Orleans informing the Mayor 
that he would be sustained by the President in 
his determination to suppress the Convention. 

The President, ignoring the provision of the 
Constitution which authorizes the Executive of 
the nation to suppress insurrection in a State 
only when called upon by the Legislature of said 
State, or in case of its not being in session by 
the Executive of said State, ignoring the Gover- 
nor and all rules of official intercourse between 
the State and the National Governments, sent a 
dispatch in which he used the following lan- 
guage: "To Andrew J. Ilerron, Attorney Gen- 
eral of Louisiana (on the day of the massacre). 
You will call on Gen. Sheridan, and whoevei 
else may be in command, for sufficient force to 
sustain the civil authorities in suppressing all 
illegal or unlawful assemblies." This placed Gen. 
Sheridan and the United States troops under the 
command of an Attorney-General of a now re- 
constructed State svhose greatest merit may be 
said to consist in the fact that he had served four 
years as an officer of high rank in the Rebel 
army, giving him the power which the Gov- 



51 



ernor himself would not 'exercise, and allowinfr 
him to say -whether a convention of loyal citizens 
was unlawful, and compelling Gen. Sheridan to 
enforce, by the strong arm of the Government, 
his interposition. It might have been urged at 
first with some show of plausibility, in the Presi 
dent's defense, that he was misinformed as to the 
real status of the Convention and the actual facts 
of its bloody dispersion ; but after weeks have 
elapsed, after Gen. Sheridan's full report, charac- 
terizing tlie so-called riot as a " premeditated 
massacre ; " after the report of the Military Com- 
mission appointed by Gen. Baird to investigate 
the affair; afferthe exodus of so manj- well-known 
Unionists of Louisiana, on account of the total 
want of Government protection, this plea can no 
longer be urged ; and when it is moreover re- 
membered that not a single arrest of the guilty 
parties has been made, and that the same par- 
doned, perjured Mayor, with his murderous 
Rebel police, has been permitted to continue the 
exercise of the power he has so grossly abused, 
can it be claimed, even b}' the most credulous or 
the most charitable, that the President is not 
responsible for the bloodshed of that day ? 

But why continue the recital of this horrible 
record ? We have before us evidence from every 
portion of the South, proving the extent and in- 
creasing violence of the spirit of intolerance 
and persecution above set forth. This Conven- 
tion is in possession of information that Union 
men dare not attend this Convention for fear of 
violence upon their return. Gentlemen of this 
Convention h«ve while in this city here received 
notices warning them not to return home. We 
have omitted the relation of acts of ferocity and 
barbarism too horrible to relate, and the recital 
of which would scarcely be credited by a hu- 
mane and civilized people. W^e submit to the 
impartial judgment of the American people, if 
these State Governments, thus ruled by a dis- 
union oligarchy and based upon the political 
disfranchisement of 3,000,000 of colored citizens, 
and the social disfranchisement of the entire 
loj'al white citizens, are republican in form , of 
doubtful legal existence they are undoubtedly 
despotic, and despotic in the interest of treason, 
as we of the South knoy but too well. This view 
of the condition of the South before the war, and 
of the events which have transpired since, brings 
us to the consideration of the cottifirmed, consoli- 
dated, intolerant, and defiant power of disunion 
which now controls every department of the nou- 
reconstructed States. 

All the restraining influences in favor of the 
Union existing before the war have perished from 
the land, save the public light kept alive by the 
loyalists. The armed efforts to overthrow tlio 
Government having been treated simply as an 
nnsuccessful but heroic act, the leaders of the 
Rebellion stand justified in the eyes of their own 
people. This is the basis of their moral justifica- 
tion. They possess the lands of the South through 
the favoritism of the military despotism en- 
throned at Richmond. During the war they ab- 
Borbed by contracts and speculation the wealth 



I of our section. They have been confirmed in the 
possession of this ill-gotten wealth by the par- 
doning power of the Executive, by the provisions 
of the National Bank Act, requiring local resi- 
dences for Directors ; they possess control of the 
entire financial power of the States, and therewith 
the lands, the cotton, the tobacco, and railroad 
wealth, and wielding the banking influence of the 
countrj", and speaking by authority of the Presi- 
dent as the supporters of his djmasty and admin- 
istration polic}', they dominate with an absolute 
power. If a conflict of arms for the gratification 
of sectional and party hatred could be, as we 
have seen, precipitated, notwithstanding the 
restraining influences which existed previous to 
the late war, what guarantee have we against a 
repetition of the bloody experiment in politics, 
now that the entire South is more intensely sec- 
tionalized than ever, overawed by the fearful array 
of power which surrounds tb^m ! Abandoned by 
the President and impoverished by the ruthless 
rule which has so long oppressed them, how can 
the Union men of the South hope unaided to main- 
tain their groimd ? The remedy which is pro- 
posed in the President's policy will only increase 
our sufferings and open the way to perpetuating 
the tyranny of oppressors. The admission of these 
representatives of these treasonable committees 
into Congress, carries with it the admission of 
their vote in the Electoral College. They will, 
on many vital questions of legislature, hold the 
balance of power in Presidential elections. The 
effect of their vote in Congress, it is true, can be 
neutralized by keeping in the Halls of National 
Legislature a solid bod}' of men M'ith whom it 
Mill be impossible for the agents of treason to 
afiiliate, but the same check cannot be applied 
in the Electoral College. The hope of wielding 
the united Southern vote in the next Presidential 
election has already corrupted the fountains of 
national justice at the capital. An open and 
shameless coalition has been formed, M'hich needs 
only for its consummation the success of the 
President's policy. Into that coalition have been 
already drawn, by one influence or another, mea 
heretofore identified with the dearest affection 
of the American people. Thus the work of po- 
litical corruption will go on ; the South, com- 
pact, defiant, and sectionalized, with its anti- 
republican institutions, resting on negro serfdom 
as the corner-stone ; the North, torn by faction 
and distracted by tlie ambition of aspiring poli- 
ticians and contending parties. This conflict of 
sections will progress, transferred from the bat- 
tle-fields to the halls of the National Legisla- 
ture. 

The spirit of disunion will seek to gain by the 
ballot what it failed to achieve by the sword ; 
the second open-armed attempt at separation 
will be simply a question of time and favorable 
opportunity. There is but one way to destroy 
this principle of sectionalism in the South; it is 
by overturning the corner-stone on which it rests. 
This work cannot be left to the voluntary act of 
the disunion class, because their aristocratic, 
anti-American instincts will find their natural 



■^ 



■gratification iu the secondary form of Slavery. 
If the question of emancipation had been left to 
the voluntary action of these States, does any 
one suppose they would have adopted the Con- 
stitutional Amendment? Would their chosen 
Tepresentatives have voted in Congress for the 
Oivil Rights Bill? Can we look to a landed 
■oligarchy for measures of liberation for the peo- 
ple? Fellow-countrymen, it is our duty to tell 
-you that nothing can be expected from the dis- 
union element in the interest of freedom, right, 
or union. We are driven to make this declara- 
f tion after having exhausted every means to in- 
duce these desperate men to do justice. We 
are forced to this conclusion by that blind and 
intolerant spirit which had abused the magna- 
nimity of the nation, and returned all our deeds 
and words of charity and forgiveness with in- 
gratitude and persecution. 

The time has come when the States of the 
Sontih must be governed by those who love the 
•Union and glory in its fame, or by those who 
'hate it. There can % no middle ground. Our 
enemies and yours would not permit us to occupy 
.middle ground, if we desired to do so. They 
•claim to rule. They claim to rule over us by 
^rtne of their treason. They claim to degrade, 
"debase, and proscribe us because of our patriot- 
ism. Acting in conjunction with the noble and 
generous spirit of Christian charity, under which 
the North was willing to receive back those who 
liad wronged us, the Union men of the South 
imet tlieir neighbors and frii-nds and kindred, 
Twilling to forgive and forget the past. We de- 
•clare that all our efforts, as well as those of the 
^Government, have been met with hypo risy or 
Ingratitude. In making this final appeal to the 
■country, we declare that the dismiion leaders of 
the South are again the deliberate, wantun ag- 
igressors. They offer, as a pretext for our perse- 
cution, that the representatives of the American 
people in Congress have proposed, in a spirit of 
injustice and proscription, to inflict the South 
•with mere partisan legislation. 

vSpealdng "here to-day in the name of the loyal- 
■ ists of the South, we affirm. Congress, in order to 
avoid discord and conflict, has actually abstained 
from doing much which it ought to have done, 
.-and possesses the power to do. We affirm that 
the loyalists of the South look to Congress with 
affectionate gratitude and confidence as the only 
means to save us from persecution, exile, and 
•death itself; and we also declare that there can 
be no security for us or our children. There 
can be no safety for the country against the fell 
epifit of Slavery, now organized in the form of 
serfdom, unless the Government, by national and 
appropriate legislation, enforced by national 
■ autJiority, shall confer on every citizen in the 
States -we represent the American birthright of 
impartial suffi-age and equality before the law. 
This is the one all-sufficient remedy. This is 
.- our great' need and pressing necessity. This is 
the only policy which will destroy sectionalism 
by bringing into effective power a preponderat- 
ing. force ou the side of loyalty. It will lead to 



an enduring pacification, because based on the 
eternal principles of justice. It is a policy which 
will finally regenerate the South itself, because 
it will introduce and establish there a divine 
principle of moral politics, which, under God's 
blessing, will, in elevating humanity, absorb and 
purify the unchristian hate and selfish passions 
of men. It will bless those who give as weU as 
those who receive. It will be the crowning act 
of glory to oirr free Republic, and when done, 
will be received, as was the act of Emancipation, J 
with joy and praise throughout the world as the ' 
final realization of the promises of the Declara- 
tion of American Independence. 

H. C. WARMOUTH, of Louisiana, 

Chairman. 

C. G. BAYLOR, of Georgia, 

D. H. BINGHAM, of Alabama, 

A. W TOURGEE, of North CaTolina, 
R. O. SIDNEY, of Mississippi, 
JAMES H. BELL, of Texas, 
JOHN HAWXHURST, Virginia, 

Committee. 

DEBA TE UPON THE REPORT IN RELA- 
TION TO IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE. 

Mr. Warmouth. — I am instructed by the Com- 
mittee on Unreconstructed States, in considera- 
tion of the fact that this is a report expressing 
our condition and our needs, to express the hope 
that this Convention will consent to allow the 
delegates from those States only to consider and 
act upon the report. [Applause.] ^In their 
name, therefore, I move that the consideration 
of and action upon this report, with the consent 
of the Convention, be confined to the delegates 
from the Unreconstructed States. 

Mr. Goodloe, of North Carolina, said that 
while sympathizing with the people of those 
States, he could not support any measure which 
insisted that the Government of the United 
! States should impose negro suffrage upon the 
South. 

A point of order was raised to the effect that 
there was a motion before the house to which 
i Mr. Goodloe was not speaking. 

Mr Sidney, of Mississippi, said that the reso- 
lution adopted last night provided specifically 
that this matter should be considered only by 
delegates from the Unreconstructed States. 

A Delegate sa"d it was understood that the 
proceedings should be printed with those of the 
regular Convention, with the express under- 
standing that they were the sentiments of the 
delegates from the Unreconstructed States. 

The Chairman stated that although he hadl 
not been present last evening, it was his under- 
standing that the proceedings were to be only 
conducted bv delegates from those States. 

Mr. Bryant (Ga.) suggested that every dele- 
gate who desired to record his name against the 
adoption of the report should be allowed to do 
so A delegate from Maryland had prayed this 
Convention, in God's name, to exempt Maryland 
from the great judgment that was pronounced 



63 



j-c3terday, and he should have an opportunity 
to record his n:une against it. 

The lion. Daniel 11, Goodloe (N. C ) said that 
he was in favor of impartial suffrage for all lueii. 
The lojal people of the South desired it and 
ought to have it He could not agree with some 
gentlemen here who had insisted that negro 
suffrage was not needed, lie had listened yes- 
terday to the eloquent speeches of a Northern 
lady, an intelligent colored man, and a gifted 
New York editor, and had been convinced thut 
impartial suffrage and equal rights to all were 
the only hope of the South. 'Ihe South de- 
manded it, but they need not endeavor to make 
those who did not sanction negro sufFi-age swal- 
low that doctrine. Let them alone, and in two 
or three years they would come around and be 
with the Radical party of the South. He moved 
to strike out the concluding part of the ad- 
dres!'. 

Capt. A. W. Tourgee, of North Carolina — Mr. 
President; I, too, come from North Carolina, 
but 1 do not come here to represent a potential 
constituenc}'. I come here with definite instruc- 
tions from nearly two thousand Union men upon 
this very point. Impartial suffrage is a neces- 
sity for us. My constituency declare that there 
are but two possible safeguards. One is the dis- 
franchisement of all rebels, and the other 
the absolute and unconditional eufranchisc- 
uient of all loyal men. [Applause.] The first 
we consider impracticable, because the disfran- 
chisement of this great mass of disloyal men 
will establish a banditti more dangerous than 
that of Corsica. Our only hope, our only salva- 
tion, therefore, is in the enfranchisement of all 
loyal men. [Applause.] 1 have used my hand 
and my voice in sustaining the cause of liberty 
and freedom in North Carolina. I have stood 
before the people of that State and said what I 
say here to-day. I have pledged myself, come 
weal or come woe, so to stand and so to speak in 
North Carolina just so long as there was a rebel 
in the Btate, God and the rebellion willing. 
[Applause.] If the enfranchiiiieniont of all loyal 
ine.a in North Carolina cannot tavu it, nothing 
can save it. I came here to present this fact for 
your consideration During lh(i last three 
months over twelve liundred Union men, princi- 
pally soldiers, men who had joined our armies 
and done good service in putting down the 
rebellion, have been driven out of North ('ar(j- 
lina. Men have sold everything they had fur 
merely a nominal value to get moii(;y to go to 
the West, because they could not live in that 
State. I can go to North Carolina and put my 
hand upon huntlrcds of men who haVe been 
threatened with death unless they left the Statf. 
There is mort; than a spirit of mere temporary 
policy in tiiis dfiuand for impartial siiffia^c 
There is thi; abscilntr and unconditional fact be- 
fore us that it is the only mode by whicii tln' 
designs of rebels can be chr-ck-matecl. No other 
jilan will ever give the Union men of the Soufli 
a majority there. Cicnth-men say that they do 
not care whether th« rebels enfranchise the 



negro or not, but are willing that they should. 
They may be in favor of having the club takea 
out of their own hands and permitting their own. 
brains to be beaten out with it, but I am not. 
If the negro is ever to be enfranchised, if the 
salvation of the Unionists of the South require 
that it should be done by them and done now, 
we are bound to come here and ask for it — and 
to ask for all we need. Shall we accept the 
crumbs and not ask for the loaf? Shall we say, 
"Give us this day or daily crumbs," when we , 
must have bread ? We must have justice and 
equality, not justice merely for the black man, 
but justice, liberty, protection, and salvation for 
the white man as well. [Applause.] Gentlemen 
saj' that this action will make the condition of 
the negro worse. In the name of God, how can 
it be worse ? As I took the train for this city, a 
man, whose veracity is unimpeachable, told me 
that the bodies of fifteen negroes were takea 
from a river in South Carolina jn one day — the 
bodies of negroes who had been murdered by 
disloyal men. Can you tell me how their condi- 
tion can be worse, deprived as they are of all 
rights, with no chance for justice in the courts., 
their just causes of action strangled by the grand 
juries, and cut off from allajipeal. Suppose they 
do appeal ? A petition, signed by 700 or 800 of 
the loyal men of North Carolina, asking protec- 
tion OAd a redress of grievances, was recently 
sent fojOndrew Johnson. It reached the Presi- 
dent, was referred by him back to the Governor 
of North Carolina, and by him referred to a dig-^ 
loyal pettifogger in the very town it came from^ 
to know whether these 700 men told the truth, 
or not. This is the situation of affairs in North 
Carolina, at least in my portion of it. I know 
the intentions, the feelings, and the wants of 
those men. I know what thej- feel to be their 
necessity. I ask only for that, and 1 ask it not 
of the politicians, but of the great loyal people 
of the North. I appeal to the press and the pul- 
pit to do everything they can to strengthen, 
our arms, and to give us that protection without 
which we die. It is not a matter of policj'. It- 
is a matter of successor complete extermination 
Shall wo hesitate to do what will secure success "i 
Shall we continue rebels in power, rebels in 
office, rebels on the bench, rebels in jury-boxes, 
and Union men in the dungeons ? 

Mr. Goodloe, of North Carolina, inquired 
whether the speaker thought that the negroes 
could go to the jiolls and vote while Andrew 
.lohnson was President? 

Mr. Tourgee — Yes, Sir, I do. 

A Delegate from Virginia. — If not, a million 
f»f men from the North will help them. [Ap- 
plause.] 

Mr. Bryant, of Georgia — And, Mr. President, 
the Union men of the South, black and white, 
will lielp. I .\piilause.] 

Mr. (ioodloe, of North Carolina, said that iiav- 
ing adopte<l one platform hei'c and sent it forth 
to the country, he did not wi.'^h to put his name 
to another, although he acknowledged the righi 
of other 'lentkmcn to do s'>. 



54: 



Capt. Tonrgee, of Nortli Carolina, in answer 
to the question of the Delegate from North 
Carolina (Mr. Goodloe) — I say that the negroes 
will vote while Andrew Johnson is President. 
The Administration party this fall will roll up 
such an immense minority, and the chances of 
the Johnson party will be so excessively select, 
that their only hope will be to take up the sword 
which we have dropped, and cut our own heads 
with it. If we do not enfranchise the negroes, 
the disloyal element of the South will say to 
them, " We have alwaj-s been your best friends, 
look how those Yankees treat you. We have 
been identified at the North and at the South as 
the friends of suffrage." Gentlemen may squirm 
and wriggle and kick on the question of suffrage, 
but I tell you there is no better chance of avoid- 
ing this issue than there is of avoiding the issues 
of judgment. [Applause.] The only question 
now is whether we will decide this issue for our- 
selves, and decide our own weal or woe thereby, 
or whether we will point out to our enemies their 
only hope and salvation. [Great applause.] 

Dr. P. B. Randoljsh, of Louisiana — Mr. Presi- 
dent: As the only repreBentative of that despised 
race legally entitled to seats in this Convention, 
I stand before you and emplore you, in the name 
of the thousands who have fallen upon many a 
bloody battle-field, to stand, in this hour of the 
nation's peril, by those who stood by you when 
that proud flag was trailed in the dust. [Ap- 
plause. ] The time has passed when the Repub- 
lican party of the United States can sacrifice 
principle upon the altar of expediency. If we of 
Louisiana were surrounded as j^ou are by patri- 
otic hearts, we might not press this issue ; but 
to-day we, men of Louisiana, whose voices have 
been heard in this Convention, dare not return 
to our wives and homes for fear of the gibbet or 
the buUet; and unless you stand by us on this 
question of the rights of man in this our trial 
hour, we may never be able to return. Sir, I as- 
sure you that the enfranchisement of the negro 
is coming, just as sure as the sun rises in the 
east, and unless you hasten that event, unless 
you do your duty by us, the enemy, who is al- 
ready biding for us, will secure our enfranchise- 
ment. Our hearts are with you, but I assure you 
that the negroes of the South will act with that 
party who shall give us our rights in the brief- 
est possible space of time. What have we done, 
Mr. President, that our friends should go back 
upon us ? What have w^e done that youi- lips 
should be sealed? What crime have we com- 
mitted ? Have we not stood by that flag ? Have 
we not fought with you in its defense ? Have 
we not done our duty as citizens of this Repub- 
lic ? Have you ever found a negro a traitor ? 
[Great applause, and cries of, "No, no."] If 
Abraham Lincoln was living to-day, he would be 
for the enfranchisement of my people ; and I 
thank God that there are men to-day acting with 
the dominant party — with noble, manly, stalwart 
forms, with hearts beating where hearts ought 
to beat, who are ready to face this issue, and 
who cry aloud to the nation for justice, and seek 



the good of humanity irrespective of conventions 
or political parties. They may be few, but thej- 
are increasing every day. " We are going up 
to Gideon, to battle for the Lord , We are com- 
ing. Father Abraham, five hundred thousand 
more" [Applause.] This, as I have already 
said, is the trial of the nation. I say that we 
negroes deserve your sympathj*. You may pity 
those who are murdered or stricken down, but 
how much do you pity them ? I remember that 
some years ago an old lady was crossing the 
ferry at Brooklya She had a lot of bonnet- 
frames m her hand, which the wind blew over- 
board. Everybody said, " I'm sorry ; but a 
Frenchman standing by said, " I'm sorry, ten 
dollars' worth , how sorry are you '?" If you 
commiserate our condition, if you realize that all 
classes of the South, black and white, are in 
danger, why do you not prove your sympathy 
by your acts. [Applause.] The men of Louisi- 
ana are outcasts from our homes and firesides. 
Throughout that State the rebels rule triumph- 
ant. It 13 everywhere a matter of disgrace to 
be a black man , it is a matter of scorn to be a 
L^nionist, but to be a black man, a Unionist, and 
an educator of his people, is to be guilty of the 
greatest crime under heaven. If you put out the 
eyes of a man and deprive him of the sunlight, 
you are committing a great crime against Mm, 
but if you withhold our rights from us, what are 
you doing? Men from the South, I will tell 
j'ou, you are closing up hundreds of schools; 
you are driving thousands of black children 
from the school-houses; you are going to let 
loose a reign of vandalism more atrocious than 
the world has ever seen ; you are striking a blow 
at the very heart of civilization ; you are enslav- 
ing the freedmen ; you are hastening the reign 
of anarchy and confusion. The time has come 
when the American party of progress must stand 
squarely up to the principles which it enunciates 
and face the music, let the consequences be what 
they may. [Applause.] Therefore, as the only 
negro — black as night if you please — in this 
Convention, I appeal to you, as the representa- 
tive of four million of people, to stand up and do 
us justice. If you do not, you will regret it. 
If, when the time comes when we do vote, we, 
like you, will remember our friends, and not for- 
get our foes. [Great applause.] ' 

Mr. J. W. Hunnicutt, of Virginia — Mr. Presi- 
dent, I have been endeavoring to get the floor 
for nearly five daj's, so as to say a few words to 
the gentlemen of the Convention. I may pre- 
mise what little I have to say with the declara- 
tion, that when I left Richmond last week to 
come hero, it was not with the intention of stand- 
ing up here to represent Henry A. Wise or the 
Richnwnd Dispatch or the Richmond Examiner. 
I came here to represent the loyal men, the loyal 
white and black men of Virginia, and, with the 
blessing of God, I will do it as faithfully as may- 
be in my power. For five days I have listened 
to the temporizing policy which has been fol- 
lowed here. In my opinion, this is the time for 
brave men, not cowards; this is the day for gen- 



55 



uine statesmanship, and this is the opportunity 
for it to display its powers to the greatest ad- 
vantntje. 

Tlie speaker said, tlint he had been forced to 
leave his original locality in 1802 on account of 
the rebellion ; but he had gone back in 1805, 
willing and anxious to conciliate with former 
enemies of the Government. He had supposed 
them humblinl. But such was not the case ; 
they were more vindictive every daj-. 

A delegate from Louisiana having obtained 
the floor, said, that the gentleman from Virginia 
was out of order, inasmuch as his remarks were 
not confined to the question. 

Mr. Ilunnicutt was allowed to proceed. He 
favored the adoption of the resolutions without 
the crossing of a < or dotting of an /. As for 
negro sutTrage, the Convention had said it must, 
shall, and will come. He came here from the 
white loj'alists and black loyalists of Virginia, 
who had contributed the funds ($100) wherewith 
to send him here to represent them. He de- 
clared himself the friend of the white man as 
well as the black man, and he would return 
■whence he came believing that if assassinated 
the blood of the martyrs would be iha seed of the 
church. He urged his hearers to go kome after 
the adjournment and advocate their cause else- 
where, and concluded by reanuouncing himself 
the advocate of equal rights. 

GOVERNOR 1I.\MII.TON's SrEECII. 

The able report which has been read to the 
Convention this morning relieves me, as I think 
it does every gentleman who has spoken, or 
may speak upon the subject, from the necessity 
<jf making an argument based upon the condition 
■<jf the non-reconstructed States. It sets forth 
clearly and truthfully the jiresent moral, social 
and political state of those people. Being 
relieved from that argument, we are brought 
down to the direct question as to the remedy to 
be applied for existing evils. The Committee 
liaving in charge the duty of reporting upon 
this subject has presented to this (,'onvention 
what, in my judgment, will be one of the most 
complete and radical remedies — indeed, the only 
remedy that can reach the case. With that 
report, with the conclusion at which the Com- 
mittee has arrived, I most heartily concur. 1 
will not detain the Convention by arraying the 
claims of these people, under the Constitution 
and principles of the Government, to the right 
which we demand for them; nor will I, on the 
other hand, base my advocacy i>f the exercise of 
this right on their part j)urely upon the 
expediency that ini'^hl be presseil upon them for 
the jirotection of tiie white man, but upon the 
indestructible Con-titution and well-recogni/ed 
right of every freeman in this land. Expedieiu y 
in this case goes hand in hand with princijile, 
and if we are not hypocrites, we will acknowledirc 
this right. A gentleman a-nked me this mornini;-, 
as if it were a questimi hard to answer, how do 
Vou j>ropo6e under tiie influence of the present 
Executive of the I nifcd States, if Congre.-.- 



: shall propose this right for this class of our 
citizens, that they shall exercise it under the 
protection of the law and without fear of vio- 
llence? The gentleman who put that question 
, ought to have reflected that it formed its own 
answer. If we had an Executive who regarded 
I sufficiently the solemn obligations of his Consti- 
tutional oath to administer the laws of the 
Government for i\'Ai protection of the citizen, 
there would not be so much necessity so far as 
life, liberty and property arc concerned, to give 
to the late slaves of the country — the frecdmen 
— this inestimable jirivilege, by means of which 
we believe they will be able to protect themselves 
in the future. But what shall be said if it be 
admitted that the President of the United States 
would disregard the obligations of his oath and 
the laws of the land, in pursuance of an act of 
Congress made for the express purpose of jiro- 
tecting these people when thej- shall be invested 
with this right of suffrage until they rre 
irreversibly invested with the exercise of that 
right? Are we to pause in our duty because in 
our judgment the President of the United States 
is not likely to discharge his? AVhiit will be 
Uie remedy, you ask, if he shall fail to do his duty ? 
I believe, gentlemen of this Convention and 
citizens of Philadelphia, that the President of 
the United States will be made to understand 
before we have got to the end of this trouble 
that there is a power above him. Not the 
power of mob violence, such as he sanctioned in 
the emporium of the South a few days past, but 
a constitutional power which will be vindicated 
by the representatives of the American people 
in Congress assembled. That is an incontrover- 
tible argument. Let us as American citizens 
accept the challenge. If the glove is thrown at 
my feet, I cheerfully take it up. 

Let me pass to the question of the capacity of 
this people to exercise this high pri^^lege. 
That is a question that ought not to be discussed 
unless you propose to discuss it in reference to 
every white man who exercises it. If the noble 
representatives of that race who have mingled 
their voices with ours during the deliberations 
of this Convention will furnish evidence of their 
capacity, I would hate to be contrasted as a 
specimen of my race with the specimens of the 
other race if I was not of an equal standard 
with those who have been held in Slavery for 
-tiO years, and, under laws penal in their char- 
acter, made to repress education and culture on 
liicir part. But there is one thing that history 
will write in the great struggle between the 
o|)po8ing spirits of freedom and Slavery, that 
they did know better than their masters on 
which side justice.' and right battled. If we 
needed any other evidence, they have earned, 
sir, by their blood, upon a hundred historical 
battle-fields, tiieir right to partieijjale in the 
obligations and jtrivileges of the Government. 
He who believes that Government can be 
carried on successfully with this injustice long 
continueil, has not read liie Iiistopy of the nnsi 
live years aright. Sir, the lightning-flash of a 



56 



^ 



revolution has struck the tomb of ignorance and 
prejudice, in which for so many j-eais the true 
spirit of republican equality and liberty has 
been buried. It has burst open the doors of the 
tomb, and the spirit of liberty lias leaped to its 
feet; it is now striding South with a step as 
steady and as rapid as the step of Time, fronting 
ignorance on the one hand and bigotry on the 
other. But in her might she will hurl them 
back into a darker age, and proclaim herself the 
champion of republican equality and liberty 
here, and its advocates throughout the civilized 
world. We do not propose that the honored 
dead fallen in this struggle shall be condemned 
to have fought in vain, but in the language of 
the immortal President now no more, we declare 
" that they shall not have died in vain." This 
nation under God shall have a new birth. This 
(lovernment was created for the people, and by 
the whole people shall not perish from the earth. 
We who are here assembled, without patronage 
or power, unawed and uninfluenced by parties 
past or present, without the hope of reward, 
clothed in the panoply of truth and in the fear 
of God, — whose chastening hand has been laid 
heavily on us for the sins of the past, — unfurl our 
banner to the breeze, on the folds of which, 
inscribed in eternal light, are "life, liberty, 
equality and fraternitv." 

JUDGE SAFFOLD's ADDRESS. 

Judge Saffold, of Alabama, said that no one 
should surpass him in the maintenance of equal 
rights. No one could claim to rise higher above 
the prejudices which held so many North and 
South ^dctims to injustice and 4,000,000 of 
people in the chains of Slavery. But the great 
question presenting itself to the American people 
to-day was how justice should be done to these 
4,000,000 of slaves. The battle of freedom had 
been waged for the last eighty years by those 
who were bound together by a common principle. 
The members of this Convention were but allies 
from the South who had been welcomed by the 
noble army of freedmen. They could help them, 
but it should at the same time be remembered 
that we could harm them and their cause. The 
pulse of the nation would not bear another 
plank in the platform erected by Congress. If 
the men who held the pulse of the nation were 
right, then the men who to-day had advocated 
the position assumed in the report were alien 
enemies to the 4,000,000. To whom did these 
injured people look for protection and justice '? 
It was to the representatives of the great loyal 
North. But in what State of the North would 
the popular vote confer upon this people their 
just and equal rights'? In what political plat- 
form could there be incorporated this new plank ? 
lie begged gentlemen to pause and consider the 
character of that great emancipator who like 
Moses led the Israelites through the Red Sea. 
Had not God opened a path through the great 
sea of waters. Slavery would not have iDcen 
stricken down. No man should surpass him in 
the advocacy of the principles inscribed upon 



their banner — the principles of justice and equal-' 
ity and fraternity ; none surpass him in the 
effort to secure to those people their just rights: 
but expediencj^ was sometimes so nearly allied 
to great principles that the practical statesman 
staj's his hand before he sacrifices the one for 
the other. He had listened yesterday to an 
eloquent address from a woman, who had con- 
vinced them that the great God of power could 
implant in a casket of jewels a brilliant intellect 
as well as in man, but he could not but think 
that while she might understand the grea*^ 
Northern heart, she did not understand the 
pulse of the nation as well as some with whom 
she evidently differed. A mistake on this great 
question might result in the passage of the 
legislative power of the Government into the 
hands of the enemies of the countrj'. The 
Constitutional Amendment is a broad platform, 
comprehensive of the great principles upon 
which thoy stand. Were they as weak allies to 
undertakt to prescribe the campaign of a great 
armj^? If so, they were stepping beyond the 
bounds of prudence. They would beside sacrifice 
the substance of a great cause for the vain effort 
to catch a shadow. They should reflect. From 
whom were they to expect the great boon they 
seek? Fortunately this was a country where 
power was exercised through the representatives 
tf tlie people. The people of Philadelphia, or 
of Pennsylvania, could not control the great 
question. It is the whole people represented in 
Congress, and if the legislative power was 
transferred to the oligarchal pai'ty, the King of 
Macedon has obtained a seat in the Araphictj-onic 
Council. America, enlightened America! that 
rests upon the intelligence of the people, has 
perished. If Congress granted universal suffrage, 
it would carry out a great beneficent principle 
of the Constitution. That was not the questioTj 
among them. It was, how could that right be 
granted ? Doctors differed upon that question. 

A member inquired whether they were going- 
to withhold it. 

Saffold replied that in Pennsj^lvania, Indiana 
and Illinois ju-ejudice and ignorance stand ready 
to deny this great privilege. 

A Delegate said the opponents of this question 
of universal suffrage had given them a fair 
opportunity to discuss it. lie inquired if they 
would not be ashamed to own that the friends 
of this principle dare not listen. He claimed 
that the}' should give him a respectful hearing 
and not disgrace themselves. 

Mr. Saffold qualified his remarks by saying 
such was the report of some of the most honor- 
able representatives from the North a few days 
ago. It was not his declaration. It was said 
he was hissed in the audii/nce. They misappre- 
hended him — any man who was guilty of that. 
He was from Alabama, where many thousands 
would manifest their loyalty if they dared, and 
who would favor negro suffrage ; but they ara 
held in a kind of bondage by those who delude 
and hold power over them. The financial 
enexpse of biu'eaus and other things are urged 



57 



as arguments against their existence, and the i 
minds of the ignorant are prevailed upon. The 
question still ciune uppermost, Were the people 
to maintain " liberty, equality and fraternity." 
or relapse into degradation ? It was not princi- 1 
pie he contended against. He held they should , 
devi.<e means to prevent the downward tendency | 
of oligarchy and degradation. The triumph of 
those principles would undoubtedly take place, 
hut they might retard it by precipitate and 
unwise action. 

The previous question was called, but, by the 
request of the President />ro tern, (the lion. John 
Minor Botts, of Virginia), the call was with- 
drawn, to permit him to express a few observa- 
tions to the Convention. 

ADDRESS OF JOHN M. BOTTS. 

The Chair asks the indulgence of the Conven- 
tion for a few moments. Being obliged to leave 
on the two o'clock train, he desired to have an 
opportimity of explaining his own position. I 
am so hoarse, having spoken the other night at 
the Union League Club, to a million of men, more 
or less, that I um afraid I shall hardly succeed in 
making myself heard. I would gladly have 
avoided this position. When I came to this 
Convention I had no anticipation of the course 
of proceedure that would take place. When the 
permanent President asked me to take the chair, 
I did so without that knowledge. I beg now to 
say, that while I know I shall be covered with 
denunciations from the press of my own State 
for standing here and listening to the remarks 
that have been indulged in here, I take pleasure 
!ind pride in saying that I am neither ashamed 
nor afraid to hear the arguments and solicita- 
tions of the white man or the black man, the 
man or the woman, the educated or the unedu- 
dated. I would listen to the arguments, and the 
reasons and supplictions of the humblest negro 
in the land as quickly as I would to the most ex- 
cellent of the whites [applause] ; and if I had 
the power to redress the grievances of the negro, 
I would accord it to him as soon as to the white 
man. But, ijentlemen, I think I may say that I 
have been for the last thirty-five or forty years 
somewhat in the character of a representative 
I'^nion man in my State [Applause]: and while 
I approve of all the first portion of the able re- 
port that has been presented, yet I must disclaim 
— on my own part, and on the part of the 30,(iOr> 
\o\a\ men of the State <jf Virginia, whoso prin<M- 
|ples I think I represent — my respmisibilil y fur 
tlie action proposed to be taken by the latter 
I)art of the platform. I am in faVor of free 
thought and fiee speech ; and I am the last nuin 
in the world to deny it to others, for I have al- 
ways claimed the right to exercise it mysi'lf. I 
have no objection to every tjentlenian on this 
floor, and everywhere else, exi)ressing his ojpin- 
ions; I h:ive no desire to trammel any opini'Mi ; 
and I liave less desire to trammel any State in 
establishing the suffraije it wants for itself If 
Texas, or anj' other State, wants universal suff- 
rage, in the name of God let them have it. If 

8 



Missouri or Louisiana, or any other .^ate, want.* 
universal suffrage, let them establish it for them- 
selves; but if Virginia does not want it, it must 
not be forced on her. And when you tsV me to 
declare to the Congress of the United States thot 
it has the power to establish suffrage in any 
State in this Union, and ask Congress to exercis'j 
the power, I am obliged to say, that my study 
of the Constitution for forty years utterly dis- 
proves any such power. Can there be a doubt 
in your minds as to tlie opinion of Congress upon 
tliis subject ? Do you doubt that, with their 
present organization, having a majority of two- 
thirds in both bodies, they would have intro- 
duced such a measure if they had the power. 
They have proposed such a Constitutional amend- 
ment, by which it is proposed to leave to each 
State to decide this question for themselves. 
There is no such power in Congress, and you 
are not in convention for the purpose of mak- 
ing a Constitution or offering amendments to 
it ; and your recommendations will go ■ for 
nothing. I do not object to your action. I only 
mean to disclaim any responsibility upon myself 
for the action of this Convention. I saj' consci- 
entiously that out of thirty thousand loyal men 
in the State of Virginia, you could not get three 
hundred of them to go to the polls and vote for 
it. [A voice — "They are not loyal men."] I 
take occasion to say that that gentleman who 
appreciates the loyalty of any man by a single 
issue, has a very diflVrent opinion from other 
gentlemen on this subject. I came up here, gen- 
tlemen, for a very different purpose ; I came up 
here as a supplicant to Congress, to extend priv- 
ileges to the white Union men of the South. I 
came here to be relieved from the serfdom to 
which I have to submit in the Southern country. ' 
and I think it would be quite time enough when, 
we have obtained our own privileges to under- 
take to confer them upon others. [A voice — "If 
3'ou leave it to the States, you will never get 
relief"] I have no hesitation in expressing my 
belief — and I do not care what any gentleman | 
from Texas or Louisiana, or elsewhere, may say. i 
On this subject in relation to the colored peo- 
ple being allowed to vote, in the [)resent temper 
of the public mind, you have onlj- to look at the 
events that trans[)ired at Memphis and New Or- 
leans to know that they will not be allowed to 
vote urdess they are protected ; and the only way 
to secure them the privilege of voting is to con- 
fer rights upon loyal men to govern these States, 
and confer upon them such power a'J will enabl'i 
them to give the necessary protection. Univer- 
sal suffrage will, sooner or later, and in good 
time, be conferred upon the neijroes of th* 
South; but. in my judgment, the time has not 
yet arrived, wov is this the time. 1 believe if 
this Convention could give to the negi'oes of 
the Soutli the right of suffrage, before they' 
would be permitted to exercise it, they would' 
be shot d(nvn in the streets, and their houses ' 
burned over their heads. [A voice — " 'J'hat'.s 
done niiw."] As I said. I need only refer to die 
scenes of Memphis and New Orleans to provu 



58 



it. lu regard to the remarks of tlie gentleman 
■who has just taken his seat, that the action of 
this day will interfere with the success of our 
friends in the Northern States, I beg leave to 
assert that it will have no such effect. I regard 
this as a mere expression of individual opinion 
on the part of certain gentlemen. The Conven- 
non assembled here has clearly defined its posi- 
-ion, and most of the leading representative gen- 
tlemen from my State ratify and adopt it. [A 
delegate here called for the previous question.] 
Mr. B. continued : May I be indulged in saying, 
that I came to this Convention at the request of 
a large number of friends, and I prepared reso- 
lutions expressive of my own opinions, and what 
I believed to be their opinions, which I did not 
present to tjiis Convention, for the reason that 
there wib such an accumulation of resolutions 
presented to that Committee that I knew they 
■could not be acted upon, intending that if there 
was nothing better, I should offer my own. I 
-therefore hope that these resolutions will be 
adopted as part of the proceedings of the Con- 
vention. 

Judge Sherwood, of Texas : I believe the mat- 
ter under consideration is the report of the Com 
Tj)ittee on Unreconstructed States. 

Mr. Botts (Virginia) moved that the resolution 
be printed. 

After some few remarks, the Convention coi>- 
sented to hear Mr. Bott's resolutions read. 

TcESOLUTIONS OF ME. BOTTS. OF 

I VIRGINIA. . 

' First, Resolved, That the Union of the States 
was intended by its framers, as it was at the time 
declared to be, a perpetual Union, and there is 
DO right in any State, or number of States, to 
withdraw or withhold tlie performance of its or 
tlieir obligations to the rest of the States. 

Second. That any attempt to break up the 
Union, by an ordinance of secession or otherwise, 
by force, constitutes the offense of treason, and 
that all parties voluntarily engaged therein, are 
necessarily guilty of the felonious and most odious 
crime known to the laws of the nations of the 
«arth 

Third. That every citizen of the United States 
owes a primary obligation of allegiance to the 
Government and whole people of the United 
States, and that any such citizen voluntarily 
taking the oath of allegiance to any other gov- 
ernment (either de jure or de facto), or otherwise, 
voluntarily making himself a citizen thereof, 
necessarily alienates himself froni the Govern- 
ment of the United States, forfeits all claim to 
its protection, and all claims to a further partici- 
pation in the government of the country he has 
sought to destroy ; and his right to citizenship 
can only be restored by the law-making power of 
the United States. 

Fourth. That all naturalized citizens who had 
obtained a claim to the protection of the United 
States by a sworn allegiance to tlie Constitution, 
and afterward, under any pretext, voluntarily 
took up arms against the United States, or in 



any manner voluntarily afforded aid and comfort, 
or sympathy and assistance to the late rebellion, 
added perjury to treason, and should be forever 
prohibited by law from exercising any of the 
functions or enjoying any of the privileges of 
citizenship. 

Fifth. That whilst we do not ask the revoca- 
tion of any pardon that has been granted by the 
President, nevertheless we regard the power to 
pardon so great a crime as that of treason to the 
Republic, before trial and conviction, as at least 
of doubtful authority, and one that may, in the 
future, be attended with the most dangerous 
consequences to the stability of the Government 
and the freedom of the people ; and that the free 
exercise of that power, as recently witnessed 
with such disastrous consequences to the peace 
and tranquillity of the country, should not be al- 
lowed to ripen into a precedent, to be followed 
hereafter ; and we, therefore, earnestly recom- 
mend that steps should be taken to bring the 
question before the judicial tribunals of the 
country, and, if necessary, that the Constitution 
should be so amended as to prohibit it in the 
future. 

Sixth. That whilst the absurd pretension of 
" State Sovereignty " has been forever destroyed 
by the results of the late rebellion, nevertheless 
the " rights of the States" so essential to the 
preservation of the structure of the Govern- 
ment, remain untouched and unimpaired, and 
are held sacred by every friend of his country. 

Seventh. That the safety of the Republic, the 
weJlare of the people, the peace t-f the country, 
require and demand that all legislative, execu- 
tive, and judicial offices of the country, whether 
in State or Federal Governments, should be con- 
fided to those only who have proved faithful and 
true to the requirements of the Constitution, and 
to the integrity and perpetuation of the Govern- 
ment formed by our Fathers ; and that those who 
have proven false to their oaths, false to the trust 
reposed in them, and false to the obligations of 
patriotism and honor, are unfit and imworthy 
custodians of the public honor, public peace, 
public safety, and public welfare ; and as a con- 
dition of their restoration to citizenship, they 
should be declared incapable of holding any 
political office whatever, at least for a term of 
years, if not forever. 

Eighth. That sugar-coat it as you may, there 
is at last but one issue that has been or can be 
made in the approaching contest, and that is — 
whether the worst enemies of the country, who 
labored to destroy it, and the Copperheads who 
sympathized in the war that was made against 
the institutions of human freedom, and rendered 
all the aid they dared to extend, shall be restor- 
ed to power, or whether those devoted to loyalty, 
who sacrificed their blood and treasure, and 
hazarded all for its preservation, shall be intnist- 
ed with its future safety and control. 

Ninth. That as between the two, no matter 
what differences may exist between us on minor 
matters, we place the safety and integrity of the 
Nation far above and beyond all other questions, 



59 



and both individually and collectively wc freely 
and unanimously declare, that in such a contest 
no room is left' for hesitation or doubt in our 
minds; that he who helps to lift the traitor into 
power is himself a traitor in dcfd. if not in heart, 
and therefore all our efforts will be directed to 
the success of the loyal and patriotic, and to the 
overwhelminij discomfiture and defeat of the 
enemies of the country, and all their associates, 
comforters, aiders, ancl abettors. 

Tenth. That the experience of all Southern 
Union men here assembled justify them in de- 
claring that the Freedmen's Bureau in the hands 
of discreet and intelligent subordinates, in the 
present temper and spirit of our people, is an 
institution indispensable to the security and wel- 
fare of the lately emancipated colored race, and 
has proved itself of incalculable benefit to the 
suffering poor of the white race, and is accept- 
able to those who desire to see equal and impar- 
tial justice to all classes and to all races. 

Eleventh. That the emancipated people of the 
South are entitled to the same protection, in life, 
liberty, and property, as is extended to others, ! 
and that the best, if not the only means of secur- j 
ing this protection will be for Congress to take 
such steps as will place the State governments 
in the hands of the loyal men of the respective j 
States, who have no disposition to oppress them, 
and who will make such laws as will afford equal 
protection to all in common. » 

Twelfth. That whilst many radical propositions 
may have been submitted to the late Congress, 
we know of no radical measure that was adopted 
ty that body ; and that no clap-trap words, with 
which the Democracy have always kept a full I 
stock on hand, to apply to their opponents, such j 
as "Federalists" at one time, "Hartford Conren- 
tionists" at another, "Abolilionlsts" &i another, 
then " Suhmissionists," and now " Radical" can 
have any terror for loyal men who have any 
claims to manhood ; and that the more radical 
Congress may have shown itself to be in the 
cause of loyaltj', the more acceptable were they 
to all lo^-al men, and in this only did it give in- 
dication of radicalism. 

Thirteenth. That if the States lately in rebel- 
lion are not now represented in Congress, it is 
because the representatives of those States vol- 
untarily and treacherously abandoned their seats, 
became citizens of another government, for thi^ 
time being, at war with this ; and because, when 
the opportunity was afforded them of again oc- 
cupying their original seats, the subdued Uibd 
spirit of tiie South broke out afresh, antl they 
chose to add insult to treachery, by selecting 
such persons as representatives, from almost 
every locality, who had made themselves prom- 
inent and obnoxious i)y their active participation 
in the rebellion, with tlie full knowledge thai 
they could not comply with the law, and would 
necessarily be excluded from the halls of le;;isl;i 
tion. A more glaring exiiibition of contempt t'or 
the law, and defiance of the authorities could not 
well have been j)resented ; and if tliere was any 



reason for, or jaower to exclude them from the 
legislative bodies of the nation, whilst they were 
in open arms against the Government, the same 
reason and the same power still exists to exclude 
them, so long as the spirit of insubordination and 
hostility to the Government is made painfully 
manifest by their every act, both public and pri- 
vate, and in their hourl}- conduct in the ordinary 
walks of life ; inasmuch as to admit then) to par- 
ticipate in the legislation of the country, would 
be adding power to the tcill to destroy the Gov- 
ernment. 

Fourteenth. That nothing could better display 
the unsubdued spirit, the unrelenting hostility 
of unrepentcnt rebels, than that those who were 
but yesterday in arms against the country should 
to-daj' crave pardon for their crimes, and to- 
morrow impudently assume to dictate terms on 
which alone they will return to their duties and 
obligations as citizens of the United States, — 
those terms their restoration to power and the 
control of the Government. 

Fifteenth. That the amendment to the Consti- 
tution now pending, meets with our approval, 
and will receive our support ; the first section of 
which declares a simple truism (since universal 
freedom prevails) that all persons born or natur- 
alized in the United States, and subject to the 
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United 
States. The second we regard as indispensable 
to justice and equality among the several States ; 
and the third, is objectionable only because it 
does not go far enough, and only excludes those 
who have added perjury to treason from holding 
office, thereby apparently making the oflense of 
perjury greater tlian the crime of treason ; and 
the fourth, declaring in regard to the national 
and rebel debts what has already received tlie 
unanimous vote of the late (so-called) Philadel- 
phia Convention ! 

Sixteenth. That the 'solemn farce, the stage- 
trick played off at the late Copper-rebel meet- 
ing held in this city (called a Convention), of 
linking arm in arm the lion and the unicorn, 
amidst the shouts of the multitude, was disre- 
putable to the gravity of a great State occasion : 
when the true representative men of the South 
assembled, such as A'allandigham, Wood, Dean, 
<fe Co., were altogether excluded from the hall, 
and the Southern delegates were required to take 
back seats, and for the first time in a Democratic 
bod}-, to hold their tongues, sit like automatons 
at a dumb show, t(j thank God that the " divine 
institution had been destroyed;"' "that the 
I'nion was more sacred than before the rebel- 
lion ; " that " there was no right to any State, or 
combination of Stat<?3, to secede;" "that none 
but loyal men must be elected, or admitted int() 
( 'ongress ; " that the Constitution and laws of the 
United Stales are the supreme law of the land ;" 
"that the I'nion of the States is perpetual, and 
its government of 8Uj)reme authority ; " "that 
there is no purpose or desire on the ])art of th(' 
South to re-establish Slavery;" "that the Kebel 
debt must be repudiated," and "that the national 



60 



debt must be held sacred," and "the honor and 
faith of the Republic should be maintained and 
unimpeached ; " " that the Federal soldiers and 
sailors must be taken care of, and rewarded for 
whipping the South and preserving the Union ; " 
all of which is heartily endorsed and adopted by 
this Convention as a part of their platform ; but 
when attempted to be palmed otF as expressive 
of the principles and feelings of Rebels and Cop- 
perheads, is nothing more and nothing less than 
a transparent cheat, by which no sensible person 
can be misled, and an indignity and insult to 
the manly intelligence of the whole country, 
when it is patent to all men's minds that there 
is not a Rebel in the South, or Copperhead in 
the North willing to abide by any such declara- 
tion of principles in good faith. 

Seventeenth. That we ask nothing more, and 
will be content with nothing less, than Mr. 
President Johnson has himself over and again 
laid down as a rule for his own action and the 
action of the Government, to wit, that "treason 
should be made odious," and that loyal men only 
should rule the country, and that, as in the late 
Philadelphia meeting, traitors should be made 
to take the back seats they designed for us, and 
that the worst of them shall stand out in the cold 
and take no seat at all. 

Eighteenth. That every class of jieople in tiiis 
coimtry, under our free and liberal institutions, 
have an indubitable and inalienable right guar- 
anteed by the Constitution peaceably to assem- 
ble and to consult together for their common 
beneiit and general welfare, without let, hinder- 
ance or obstruction from any quarter; which 
was happily illustrated on a recent occasion, 
when large numbers of those known to be in 
deadily hostility to the Government were not 
only permitted to meet their Northern allies and 
sympathizers in this loyal city of Philadelphia 
(but were hospitably entertained by its citizens) 
to concert a scheme for accomplishing by the 
ballof-hox what the cartridge-hox had signally 
failed to effect. 

Nineteenth. That the brutal butchery and hor- 
rible assassination of peaceable and unofi\?nding 
citizens in New Orlans, under the lead of the 
Mayor of that city, and the hired subordinates 
under his control, mui^t meet with the demands of 
justice, which cannot be satisfied or appeased by 
simple reprehension and denunciation, and which 
cannot reach those who are insensible to both — 
and calls in thunder tones, upon the Federal au- 
thorities, to which all citizens have a right to 
look for protection, for a summary trial, and a 
faithful execution of the laws. 

Twentieth. That the direct and immediate en- 
couragement given to this wholesale slaughter 
of loy^d men, only because they were loyal, by 
the President and his chief advisers, together 
with the unauthorized and unconstitutional exer- 
cise of power in superseding the lawfully-elected 
and recognized Governor of the State, and trans- 
ferring the power of the State Executive to the 
hands of one of his " satraps and dependants," im- 
peratively calls for the most rigid inquiry on the 



part of the representatives of the people, and, if 
found necessary, demands the ultimate resort 
provided by the Constitution. 

Mr. Sherwood, of Texas, who was called to 
the chair, announced that the question now be- 
fore the house was on agreeing to the report of 
the Committee on Non-reconstructed States. 

A Delegate moved the previous question, and 
there were loud cries of " Question," " Question," 
from all parts of the house. 

Mr. Sherwood. — The question before the house 
is on agreeing to the report of the Committee. 
But the honorable gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 
Botts) desired to go away, and he desires that 
his sentiments, as embodied in these resolutions, 
be put before the house and printed. Shall we 
suspend the rules ? [Loud cries of " No,'" 
"No."] 

General Warmouth. — Mr. Chairman, in an- 
swer to the gentleman (Mr. Botts), I would state 
that I, for one, object to the principle which is 
embodied in those resolutions, that the Congress 
of the United States, as the governing power in 
tills country, cannot interfere for our protection 
and salvation. [Great applause.] 

Mr. Botts said that members need not grant 
his request if they did not want to. He should 
speak at many meetings in the course of the 
campaign. He would present them there and 
print them himself. What was there in the 
resolutions that any man in this Convention 
could object to ? 

A Delegate. — There is one thing in the resolu- 
tion of the honorable gentleman from Virginia 
to which I object. It is that resolution which 
states that Congress has no right to interfere 
with the rights of any States. That's what I 
object to. [Applause.] 

Many Delegates. — I call the question. Ques- 
tion. Question. I move the previous question. 
What's the question ? etc. 

The President, Hon. E. M. Peose, of Texas. — 
The question before the house is as to the agree- 
ment of the house to the report of the Committee 
from the Non-reconstructed States, and the pre- 
vious question has been called and seconded. 

Many Delegates. — Let us have a vote. 

The question then being on the adoption ot 
the repoi't of the Committee from the Non-recon- 
structed States, Judge Saffold, of Alabama, moved 
that the roll be called and the vote taken by yeas 
and nays. Agreed to. 

The Secretary called the roll of the States, anc? 
Col. Weston Flint (of Mo.) announced the vote, 
as follows: 

YEAS. 

TEXAS. 

Gov. A. J. Hamilton. Col. J. Stancel. 

Hon. E. M. Pease. Gen. B. J. Davis. 

Judge G. W. Paschal. J. McLane. 

L. Sherwood. Judge C. Caldwell. 

Gail Borden. Capt. A. J. Benaett. 

C. B. Sabin. J. R. S. Van Vleet. 
Judge J. H. Bell. 



61 



Thomas J. Durant. 
W. R. Crane. 
'William C. Head. 
A. Jervis. 



lion. ■William R. Fish. 
Rev. J. P. Newman, D. D. 
John Touro. 
lion. E. lleistand. 



Hon. II. C. W'armouth. P. B. Rand(jlph. 



R. F. Daunoy. 
Bernard Soulie. 
Ant Fernandez. 

VIR 

J. P. Baldwin. 
Edward Roberts. 
E. E. Mason. 
W. L. Brown. 
S. M. Garwood. 
John B. Troth. 
Jacob >I. Troth. 
Joseph Williams. 
Capt. W. H. Snowden. 
Peter Couse. 
J. N. Clements. 
Thos. M. Brown. 
E. W. Robinson. 
Geo. Rye. 

Alexander M. Davis. 
B. Wardwell. 
T. Dudley, Jr. 



T. W. Coiiroy. 

Jno. McNair. 

S. G. Brower 

3IXIA. 

Geo. Tucker. 

L. I mi. 

N. E. Janney. 
J. Vi. Ilunnicutt. 
Dr. Thomas M. Bond. 
Samuel L. Steer. 
John Ilawxhurst. 
G. P. S. Hunnicutt. 
P. F. Schlircker. 
Lewis McKinzie. 
A, M. Crane. 
T. B. Munson. 
John W. Gregg. 
J. B. Brown. 
C. L. Watrous. 
11. A. Pierce. 



G, "W. Ashburn. 
Henry G. Cole. 
James L. Dunning 
Wm. Markham. 
J. C. Brvunt. 



GKORGI.A. 

N. P. Ilarben. 
C. G. Baylor. 
N. S. Morse. 
C. C. Richardson. 



Tapt. D. IT. Bingham. F. S. Cramer. 
Albert Griffin. 

MISSISSIPPI. 

Dr. R. 0. Sidney. 

ARKANSAS. 

P. A. Fennerty. J. W. Babe. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

A. W. Tourgee. 

FLORIDA. 

Col. 0. B. Ilart. Cornelius Curtis. 

Yeas— 80. 
NOES. 

VIRGINIA. 

John M. Botts. G. K. Gilmer. 

ALABAMA. 

Hon. M. J. Saffold. F. S. Cramer. 

J. P. Hinds. 

NORTH CAROLINA, 

Rev. Hope Bain. II. K. Fumiss. 

FLORIDA 

John W. Price. 

Noes — 8. 
The following named delegates from the Border 
States, by special request, were permitted to 
record their votes : 



YEAS. 

TENNESSEE. 

Hon. J. S. Fowler. Hon. S. C. Mercer. 

Hon. S. W. Arnell. James Gregorv. 

John Ruhm. T. W. McKinly. 

Mi.ssorRi. 
Col. Weston Flint. Henry Iluhn. 

Col. Charles E. Moss. Henry S. Lasar. 

MAJLYLAND. 

Mr. — Snellen. Hon. Hugh S. Bond. 

DISTRICT COLITUBIA. 

Dr. Wm. Boyd, D. M. Kelaey. 

Jefferson Fowler. 

Yeas — 16. 

The following, from a portion of the Tennessee 
Delegation, was read : 

We, the undersigned, delegates from the beau- 
tiful valley region of Middle Tennessee, whose 
soil is dotted over with the graves of the mar- 
tyrs of Freedom — graves that look into our very 
windows — a region crowded with defenseless 
black men, himdrudsof whom have borne honor- 
able part in defense of American nationality and 
libert}-, — coming as delegates from this region, 
more than a thousand miles away, and in view of 
their constituency, we cannot either be silent or 
subscribe to a half-way expression of opinion. 
The dumb eloquence of those honored graves and 
the defenseless condition of white and black 
loyalists there plead in trumpet tones in favor of 
negro suffrage. We, therefore, desire to concur 
in the report of the Non-reconstructed States in 
this respect, and to add our testimony to theirs 
in an appeal to the Christian heart of tlie country 
in favor of what, in our opinion, alone will bring 
true peace to the South, and assist to establisn 
the government of man. 
Signed by 

S. C. MERCER, of Tennessee. 

SAMUEL W. ARNELL, of Tennes.=ee. 

JAMES H. GREGORY, of Tennessee. 

JOHN RUHM, of Tennessee. 

Endorsed by 

COL. CHARLES E. MOSS, 
COL. WESTON FLINT and 
HENRY IIUIIN, of Missouri. 

C. G. Baylor — The Committee of the Delega- 
tion, in making the report of the different Non- 
reconstructed States, wished that in the platform 
might be placed inii)artial suffrage for the credit 
of our principles. Tliat was the sentiment of the 
members from the non-reconstructed States, and 
they wished to have the privilege of saying it. 

THANKS TO THE CITIZENS OF PHILA- 
DELPHIA. 

Judge Lewis, of Tennessee, in a few prefatory 
remarks, offered the following resolution : 

Unsolved, That the heartfelt thanks of this Con- 
venlion are hereby ti'ndcrod to their brethren, 
the loyal citizens of riiil.ulclpliia, for tin- kind 
and fraternal wckome, the generous and uiaguiti- 



62 



cent hospitality whicli they have so nobly ex- 
tended to us. That we shall always retain a most 
grateful recollection of the days we have spent 
with them, and in our memories Philadelphia 
will always remain in very truth the beautiful 
" City of Brotherly Love." [Applause.] 
AdojDted. 

Mr. Morse, of Georgia, offered the following 
resolution : 

Resolved, That the members of this Convention 
tender their hearty thanks to Miss Anna E. Dick- 
inson for her able and eloquent address to them 
on Thursday. 

And that the Committee on Printing are here- 
by instructed to present to Miss Dickinson a 
copy of the proceedings of this Convention, 
bound in the best style, as a token of respect 
and esteem of its members for her devotion to 
the cau e of freedom. 

The resolution was so amended as to include 
the names of Frederick Douglas and Theodore 
Tilton, and adopted. 

RESPECT FOR THE MEMORY OF DR. 
DOSTIE. 
The following resolution, offered by Col. Moss, 
of Missouri, was read and adopted: 

. Whereas, The lamented A. P. Dostie, of New 
Orleans, one of the true patriots who signed the 
call of this Convention, has been foully murdered 
since said call was issued ; we recognize the 
spirit of this faithful Unionist as a delegate in 
this Convention, whose voice shall ever be re- 
membered, and Avhose wrongs shall never be for- 
gotten until the principles he maintained shall 
perish from the earth. Be it further 

Resolved, That this Convention wear the usual 
badge of mourning in memory of the brave 
friends of liberty who perished at New Orleans 



on the SOth day of September last, and that a 
copy of these resolutions, as a tender of sympa- 
thy, be forwarded to the families of those who 
perished. 

Dr, R. 0. Sidney, of Mississippi, offered the 
following : 

Resolved, That such friends as desire to assist 
the Convention of Southern Unionists in pub- 
lishing and circulating the proceedings of their 
Convention, be respectfully requested to send 
their contributions to the Fourth National Bank, 
in the city of New York, subject to the di-aft of 
the Publishing Committee. Adopted. 

Resolutions were also offered and adopted re- 
turning thanks to the reporters of the press of 
Philadelphia and other cities for their faithful 
and arduous labors in reporting the proceedings 
of the Convention, and to the messengers and 
doorkeepers of the Body. 

On motion of Mr. J, E. Bryant, of Georgia, the 
following was adopted : 

Resolved, That a committee of one from each 
of the unreconstructed States be appointed to lay 
before Congress, at its next session, the report ot 
the Committee made this morning containing the 
expression of our ideas. 

The Chair appointed as the Committee tha 
following gentlemen : Messrs. J. E. Bryant. 
Georgia; A. J. Hamilton, Texas; N. W. Daniels^ 
Louisiana ; George Tucker, Virginia ; J. W. 
Babe, ArkanBas ; A. Griffin, Alabama ; Dr. R. o! 
Sidney, Mississippi ; Capt. 0. B. Hart, Florida. 

On motion, it was then ordered that the Con- 
vention would now adjourn sine die, with prayer. 

Rev. Dr. Patterson, of Philadelphia, then came 
forward and offered a fervent prayer, after which, 
the question being put on the motion for final 
adjournment, the Chair decided it carried, and 
adjourned the Convention without day. 



G3 



PRESIDENT LIXCOLX'S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



March 4, 1865. 



Fkllow-Coustrtmkn : At this second appearing to 
take the oath of the Presidential otlice, there is less 
occasion for an extended address than there was at first. 
Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be 
pursued seemed very fittin^j and proper. Now, at the 
expiration of four years, during which public declarations 
have been constantly called fcrth on every point and 
phase of the great contest which still absorbs the atten- 
tion and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that 
is new could be presented. 

The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly 
depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, 
«nd it is, 1 trust, reasonably satisfactory and encourag- 
ing to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction 
with regard to it Is ventured. 

On the occasioii corresponding to this, four years ago, 
all thought* were anxiously directed to an impending 
civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avoid it. While 
the Inaugural address was being delivered from this 
place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without 
war, insurgent agents were in ths city seeking to destroy 
It without war — seeking to dissolve the Union and divide 
the effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war. 
but one of them would accept war rather than let the 
nation sun-ive ; and the other would accept war rather 
than let It perish, and the war came. 

One-eighth of the whole population Tfere colored 
Maves, not distributed generally over the Union, but 
localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves 
constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew 
that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To 
ftrcngtlu'n, perpetuate, and extend this interest, wa.^ the 
•bject for which the insurgents would rend the Union 
even by war, while the (iovernment claimed no right to 
do more than to restrict the territorial enl ■rgement of it. 

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or 
the duration which it has already attained. Neither an- 
Ucipated ttiat the cause of the conlUct might cease with, 



or even before the conflict Itself should cease. Each 
looked for an easier triumph, and a result less funda- 
mental and astounding. 

Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same 
God; and each invokes his aid against the other. It 
1 may seem strange th.it any men should dare to ask a 
[ just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the 
I sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that 
i we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be an 
swered. That of neither has been answered fully. The 
I Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world 
] because of ofiences ; for it must needs be that offences 
come ; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh." 
If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of these 
offences, which, in the providence of God, must need» 
come, but which, having continued through his appointed 
time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to botk 
North and South this terrible war as the woe due tw 
those by whom the offence came, shall we discern there- 
in any departure from those divine attributes which the 
believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fond- 
ly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty 
scourge of war may soon pass away. Yet, if God wills 
that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bond- 
man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall 
be sunk, and until every drop of bIoo<l drawn with the 
lash, shall be paid with another drawn by the sword ; as 
was said three thousand years ago. so still it must be said, 
"The judgments of the Lord are true and righteoua 
altogether." 

With malice toward none, with charity to all, wltk 
firmness in the riglit, as God gives us to see the right, let 
us strive on to fiuish the work we are in ; to bind 6p the 
nation's wounds ; to care for him who shall have borne the 
battle, and for his widow and his orphans ; to do all which 
may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among 
ourselves and with all nations. 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ABOLISHING SLAVERY. 



On Dec. IS, l.Vi5, Secretary Seward offlclally announ ed 
to the coualrjr the ratification of the Amendment, as fol- 
lowi: 

To all to whom these prenenU may come. Greeting : 

KrMio ye. That, whereas the Congress of the United 
Stales, on the Ist of February last, passed a resolution, 
which Is In the words following, namely : 

"A resolution submitting to the I.*glslature9 of the 
•everal States a proposition to amend the Constitution of 
the United States." 

" Uemilre'l, By the Senate and Ilouse of Representa- 
tives of the United States of America In Congress assem- 
bled, two-thirds of both Mouses concurring, that the fol- 
lowing article be proposed to the Legislatures of the several 
SUtes as an Am'.-ndment to the Constitution of the United 
Stales, which, when ratlfled by threj-fourths of said I.cgis- 
latures, shall be valid to all Intents and purposes as a part 
of said Constitution, namely : 

"'Article XIII. 

" 'Suction 1. Neither Slavery nor Involuntary gervltiule. 
except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party sliall 
have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United 
States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

" ' SecrioN 2. Congress shall have power to enforce Ihli 
article by appropriate Icglalatlcn.' " 

And tcheienji. It appear* from ofllclal documents on 
fl e La UUi Pepwtment, that the AmeodiMat to the v^osll- 



tutinn of the United .'tales proposed as aforesaid, has been 
ratified by the Legislatures of the States of Illinois, Rhode 
Island, Michigan, ."Maryland, New York, West Virginia 
Maine, Kansas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, 
Ohio, .Missouri, Nevada, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, 
Wisconsin, Vermont, Tennessee, Arkansas, Connecticut, 
New Hampshire, South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina, 
and Georgia, In all 27 States. 

A ml whereaa. The whole number of States in the United 
SUles Is 36. 

Andw/iereaD, The before specially named States, whose 
Legislatures have ratified the said proposed Amendment, 
constitute three-fourths of the whole number of States In 
the United States ; 

Now, therefore, be It known that I, William 11. Seward, 
Secretary of State of the United States, by virtue and la 
pursuance of the Sicond section of the act of Congress, 
approved the 2'ilh of April, 18l,S, entitled " An Act to pro- 
vide for the publication of the laws of the United States, 
and for other purposes," do hereby certify that the Amend- 
ment aforesalii has become valid to all intents and purposes 
as a part of the Constitution of the United Slates. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my band,aiid 
caused the seal of the Department of Slate to be affixed. 

Done at Washlncrton, this 1 ih day of December, In the 
year of our Lord l.s(>), and of iho Independence of th<t 
United iitates of America the O'lth. 

WM. U, SEWARD, .S<cr<faryo/5/afc» 



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LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



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